A medic shows a patient how she can pay her medical bills at Huzhou Central Hospital. [Photo/hz66.com]

The direct settlement of cross-provincial outpatient expenses is now available in Huzhou, East China's Zhejiang province to all patients from outside Zhejiang.

The direct settlement of trans-provincial medical expenses allows any patient enrolled in the public medical insurance system to be reimbursed for medical and inpatient expenditure, regardless of the province they are treated in.

Huzhou had rolled out the service in August 2020 for residents from the Yangtze River Delta, a region encompassing the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui and Shanghai municipality.

In February, the city was included in the national pilot system that supports cross-provincial settlement of outpatient bills in 27 provincial-level regions.

The National Healthcare Security Administration recently said that the system now covers the entire country.

Zhao Suomei, deputy director of the medical insurance management department of the Huzhou Medical Security Bureau, said that the policy has brought much convenience to citizens across the country.

Official data show that 42,200 direct settlements of cross-provincial outpatient expenses were made in Huzhou in the first 11 months of this year. These settlements involved 6.29 billion yuan ($967.7 million) of medical expenses.

About 4.26 billion yuan from the public medical insurance fund were spent on the direct settlement of trans-provincial outpatient bills during the same period, accounting for over 67 percent of the total.

In addition, more than 5,000 direct settlements of cross-provincial hospitalization expenses were made in the city during the period, with medical expenses totaling 68.52 million yuan.