A group purchase of a physical examination package priced at 1,056 yuan, but there was the embarrassment of "I was diagnosed with the disease in the morning and recovered in the afternoon."
In November this year, Ms. Chen from Shanghai purchased a Meinian Great Health middle-aged and elderly physical examination package online with a price of 1,056 yuan, and made an appointment for a physical examination in the store by phone according to the group purchasing instructions. This physical examination includes internal medicine, surgery, tumor markers, 11 items of liver function, 3 items of renal function and other indicators.
"On the website, the cheapest physical examination package is only three to four hundred yuan, the more expensive one is 1,500 yuan, and the middle-aged and elderly package of 1,056 yuan is above the average level." Ms. Chen, 32 years old, told reporters that she compared Aikang Guobin The package price of 1,056 yuan from many well-known medical examination institutions such as , Meinian Health, and Ruici Physical Examination does not fall into the category of "low-price physical examination" in any physical examination center. "I specifically chose the expensive one to allow the institution to make enough money. You should stop tricking me."
However, later facts proved that she was wrong.
The physical examination report was inconsistent with the examination results of the tertiary hospital.
During the physical examination, the "doctor" who did the neck ultrasound told Ms. Chen that her thyroid gland was "not good" and had severe inflammation. The B-ultrasound report showed that the thyroid gland had a relatively serious "diffuse echo". The "doctor" reminded Ms. Chen, "Go to the charge counter on the first floor to get a thyroid function blood test. You don't need to draw blood anymore, just pay."
During the surgical examination, the surgical "doctor" touched Ms. Chen After checking the thyroid gland on the neck, he reminded her again, "You can already feel nodules in your thyroid gland. At least you have thyroiditis. Go to the first floor to pay and have your thyroid function checked."
This is not Ms. Chen's first time. This time I paid for a "thyroid function" blood test at Meinian Health. In November last year, at the same Meinian Health store, the B-ultrasound examination results showed that she had " thyroid nodule ". For this reason, she paid a discounted fee of about 200 yuan for a thyroid function test.
"Every time they say there is a problem with the thyroid gland, check the function. If the blood is normal, it doesn't matter." Ms. Chen's two blood test reports showed that her thyroid function was normal.
This year, because of the emergence of "diffuse echo" accompanied by thyroid nodules, Ms. Chen went to the endocrinology department of a well-known tertiary hospital in Shanghai for re-examination in the afternoon after her physical examination in the morning. After she introduced her physical examination to the doctor, the doctor gave a diagnosis of "thyroiditis" and asked her to do another B-ultrasound and thyroid function test in the hospital.
This time, the doctor who performed the B-ultrasound told her, "Do you have thyroiditis? Congratulations, you have recovered." Ms. Chen asked again whether her thyroid nodules were still there, and the B-ultrasound doctor told her with great certainty: "From the imaging point of view, your thyroid is normal, there are no nodules, and there is no inflammation."
The blood test report also showed the same results, everything was normal. "I can't believe that the surgical expert at the physical examination center in the morning could even find out that I have a large nodule; in the afternoon, the regular hospital B-ultrasound showed that there was no nodule." It is worth noting that , when Ms. Chen told her family about her experience, her father, mother, father-in-law, and mother-in-law all responded that they had also encountered the above situation. The four elderly people have never had thyroid diseases. All of their physical examination packages used the 1,056 yuan Meinian Health Package purchased by Ms. Chen online, and all of them paid for thyroid function tests on site during the physical examination. A reporter from
recently visited the Meinian Health Examination Center located in Shanghai Pudong Changhang Hospital that Ms. Chen mentioned, and saw a long queue of people waiting on the first floor to pay. The people in line all purchased temporary physical examination items after purchasing the physical examination package. Six of the nine people in the queue paid for the thyroid function examination.
Similar situations have occurred in physical examination institutions in many places.
It is no coincidence that the same problem also happened to Ms. Lin and her colleagues in Luoyang, Henan. The problem was revealed during the thyroid function test.
"You have a big problem, diffuse thyroid disease." Ms. Lin still remembers the diagnosis given by the B-ultrasound "doctor" on the spot during the examination at the Meinian Health Examination Center in Luoyang.The situation she encountered was almost exactly the same as that of Ms. Chen in Shanghai. The "doctor" reminded her, "You just had your blood drawn. Go and pay the money. You don't need to draw any more blood. Let's do a test."
"At the payment desk, I met them one after another. Five or six colleagues came to pay extra for thyroid function (examination), and it didn’t feel right.” After consulting her brother who worked at the County People’s Hospital, Ms. Lin gave up paying and went to the county hospital for re-examination the next day. . The hospital's B-ultrasound and blood test reports showed that Ms. Lin's thyroid gland was normal.
According to the China Consumer News, in June this year, Ms. Shi, a Nanjing citizen, found after an examination at a Meinian health examination center in Nanjing that “the right lobe of the thyroid nodule was accompanied by calcification, and there were hypoechoic nodules in the right lobe of the thyroid gland, large and small. About 10mm×8mm”. But later, Ms. Shi's B-ultrasound examination at Jiangsu Provincial People's Hospital showed that "the bilateral thyroid glands were normal in shape, with clear borders, smooth surfaces, normal internal blood flow, and no obvious abnormal lymphatic images in the bilateral necks."
In response to this question, this medical examination institution in Nanjing responded that "the doctor suffered from facial paralysis due to illness and has returned to his hometown." Regarding the error in the physical examination report, the person in charge said that "it may be caused by multiple factors such as doctor's skills and medical equipment problems."
reporters noticed that the chaos in the physical examination market has long become the focus of public opinion. Previously, the "Health Examination Industry Development Prospects and Investment Forecast Analysis Report" released by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute showed that China's physical examination industry grew at a growth rate of more than 25% to 94 billion yuan in 2015, which was two times higher than the 29.5 billion yuan in 2010. More than double the growth, the industry's compound growth rate in the five years from 2011 to 2015 reached 21%. The industry's growth rate is higher than that of the entire medical service industry. It is expected that China's health examination market will reach 188.6 billion yuan in 2018.
Do physical examination institutions make money by adding items?
"Some institutions rely on capital to promote the physical examination business. They sell physical examinations as a product, collect money by item, and give commissions by item and the total amount charged." The relevant person in charge of the physical examination center of a public hospital in Shanghai told reporters Take physical examination items for middle-aged and elderly people as an example. A product priced at about 1,000 yuan in a group purchase by a private institution may cost 1,200 to 1,300 yuan in a public hospital. "It cannot lose money, so they want you to add items to improve thyroid function and liver function." The person in charge of
said that thyroid disease is more common in women between the ages of 30 and 50, and liver disease has a higher incidence in men, and both diseases require "B-ultrasound + blood test". Characteristics of confirmed diagnosis, "Physical examination agency packages generally only include B-ultrasound examination, and blood tests are purchased separately on site."
reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the Meinian Health Marketing Department. The person in charge responded that the agency's physical examination of customers There is a strict review system for reports, and customers can consult and answer questions by phone, online, etc. according to the process. Regarding the question of "adding thyroid function tests," the person in charge said, "From the perspective of disease screening, thyroid ultrasound and thyroid function tests are indeed more appropriate and cannot replace each other."
"Thyroid function should be a must-check item, and it does not necessarily require abnormal surgery or B-ultrasound examination before thyroid function (examination) is performed." The person in charge said that the incidence rate of thyroid-related diseases is currently high, so it is recommended that consumers undergo physical examinations List this as a "must check item".
reporters noticed that in recent years there have been constant complaints and controversies against private medical examination institutions. Some people have taken medical examination institutions to court because physical examinations failed to detect cancer, while others have sought compensation from medical examination institutions through the Consumers Association because of malicious additions to medical examinations. "If no problem is found, you should make a complaint; if a problem is found and there are no problems after examination at a regular hospital, you should also file a complaint." The person in charge of the physical examination department of the above-mentioned public hospital told reporters. With the improvement of people's living standards, physical examination has become an important health management method that many people "pay out of pocket to check" every year. However, after all, physical examination is not a formal treatment and can only serve as a prompt and reminder. "There will definitely be some problems." To determine the exact situation, you will ultimately have to go to a regular hospital for review and follow-up.”
The 2017 annual report released by Meinian Health in the middle of this year shows that physical examination services are the main business of Meinian Health. This business achieved operating income of 6.142 billion yuan in 2017, accounting for 98.54% of the total revenue. The gross profit margin is 46.61%.
Source: China Youth Daily
Editor: Bai Wei
Layout: Xie Jiaojiao
Check: Wei Jie
(Source: Taiyuan Daily)
