Beijing adds hospice palliative care to Category A insurance reimbursement

Beijing has included hospice palliative care in Category A reimbursement under its basic medical insurance scheme, effective July 11, according to Beijing News Radio. Medical institutions across the city have adopted a unified daily settlement rate of 200 yuan ($29.5) per person.

The policy's landmark breakthrough is that humanistic services—psychological counseling, family grief support, and spiritual care—have been listed as billable, insured components of formal hospice palliative care for the first time in the city. Previously, these services were provided free of charge through public welfare and charity support. Basic medical procedures in hospice care, such as pain relief, intestinal obstruction catheterization, and thoracentesis or paracentesis to drain fluid, were already covered.

Under the new policy, insurance also covers patient assessment, diagnosis, tiered nursing, and the use of various evaluation tools, while reimbursement rules for existing basic procedures remain unchanged. Beijing's city-wide rollout of a per diem payment model for hospice care is a national first.

By the end of 2025, Beijing's permanent elderly population stood at 5.288 million, accounting for nearly one quarter of the city's total residents. Among them, 699,000 were seniors aged 80 and above. Based on current annual growth trends, Beijing is likely to see significant population aging at the start of the 16th Five-Year Plan period (2031-2035).

As of the end of last year, Beijing had 1,800 dedicated hospice palliative care beds. Under an action plan issued by local health commission, 30 community health service centers will launch home-based hospice palliative care services in 2026.

While the government has delivered tangible progress, a stark imbalance remains between massive public demand and available service supply, the Beijing News Radio said.