China will improve its medical insurance policies to bolster the development of primary healthcare, an official from the National Healthcare Security Administration said at a news conference on Friday.

Xu Na, deputy director of the administration's medical services management department, said that a guideline jointly issued last month by the administration, the National Development and Reform Commission and the National Health Commission has laid out comprehensive support measures to strengthen grassroots healthcare and deliver quality, convenient services to the public.

These steps include gradually increasing the proportion of medical insurance fund expenditures allocated to primary-level institutions, adjusting outpatient reimbursement rates at the grassroots level, promoting payment reforms tailored to primary care services, ensuring drug supplies, and deploying intelligent tools to enhance public convenience.

Specifically, the guideline proposes that the basic medical insurance reimbursement rate for outpatient services at primary medical institutions shall be no less than 50 percent.

The national centralized drug procurement program will also be leveraged to secure stocks of common and chronic medications at primary care facilities. Authorities will also support these institutions in equipping facial recognition devices to enable faster payment and insurance settlement.

Xu added that the administration will select about 15 pilot regions to explore best practices and generate replicable experiences that can be promoted nationwide.