On October 29th, the National Medical Products Administration organized a press conference to introduce the progress of the pharmaceutical and medical consumables traceability code to the public. According to the information released by the Medical Insurance Bureau, a total of 3.127 billion pieces of pharmaceutical and medical consumables traceability code data have been collected nationwide, involving 296,800 designated medical institutions and 497,200 designated retail pharmacies. Next, the National Medical Insurance Bureau will build a unified national interface for uploading traceability code information, aiming to achieve a one-time upload with nationwide application.

This seemingly ordinary traceability code by the medical insurance department can firmly control the flow of medical insurance drugs and consumables. The traceability codes for drugs and consumables will be printed on the packaging in the form of barcodes or QR codes, serving as the "electronic ID" for drugs. In the future, anyone will be able to scan the code to understand the source of the purchased drugs.

This completely cuts off the breeding ground for fraudulent insurance claims with "recycled drugs" and will make the phenomenon of parallel trading of centralized procurement drugs disappear. It is an effective means for the National Medical Insurance Bureau to control the flow of medical insurance funds, supervise drug sales, and combat insurance fraud crimes. From January to September this year, medical insurance departments at all levels across the country have already recovered 16.06 billion yuan in medical insurance funds, and the traceability codes that have been piloted have played a certain role.

At the press conference, the relevant person in charge of the National Medical Insurance Bureau clearly stated: "Within half a year, the pharmaceutical and consumables traceability codes can quickly gain widespread recognition from retail pharmacies, which is due to the free opening of the traceability codes and a simple workflow." This means that currently, the medical insurance traceability codes will not bring any additional burden to pharmaceutical manufacturers, distribution companies, retail pharmacies, hospitals, and others.