Overview of Key Industry Policies
In recent years, China's policies for MRI equipment have been guided by the main themes of "demand expansion, domestic substitution, and technological upgrading", forming a full-chain guidance from procurement and approval to usage and regulation. Procurement demand is stimulated through interest subsidies for equipment upgrade loans and regional centralized procurement. Government procurement price deductions for domestic products and priority review and approval accelerate domestic substitution. Meanwhile, charging for radiological examinations by body part forces equipment to compete on high performance and high efficiency. The binding of medical insurance codes to image clouds promotes digitalization and traceability, supplemented by adjustments to the catalog of large medical equipment to lower the threshold for equipment allocation.
Interpretation of Centralized Procurement Policies
Policy Formulation and Coordination
National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC): Top-level design, issuance of centralized procurement guidance documents, and establishment of national centralized procurement rules and price regulation mechanisms.
National Health Commission (NHC): Responsible for formulating the allocation plan for large medical equipment and clarifying the equipment access standards for hospitals of different grades.
National Healthcare Security Administration (NHSA): The key regulator and rule-maker for "price governance + centralized procurement organization + medical insurance payment constraints".
Local Execution and Regulation
Provincial Healthcare Security Administrations: Take the lead in centralized procurement within the province, formulate bidding plans, technical standards, and price ceilings. Collect and standardize technical parameters for MRI and CT equipment, and formulate provincial centralized procurement plans and technical standards. Combine regional demand to set procurement quota standards and organize centralized procurement. Balance product cost-effectiveness through competitive negotiation. Establish provincial centralized procurement offices and special working groups.
Provincial Health Commissions: Responsible for issuing Class B equipment allocation licenses and supervising the compliant procurement of medical institutions. Clarify provincial medical equipment access standards.
Municipal/County Healthcare Security Administrations: Organize regional centralized procurement and implement tiered procurement policies.
Commission for Discipline Inspection and Supervisory Commissions: Supervise procurement compliance and investigate and punish bid-rigging, collusion, bribery, and corruption.
Demand Declaration and Formulation of Bid Evaluation Technical Parameters
Tertiary, secondary, and primary hospitals: Declare equipment demand and procure equipment through special subsidies. Key tertiary hospitals participate in the formulation of bid evaluation technical parameters and the selection of cost-effective models.
Cross-regional Joint Procurement (e.g., joint bidding by the Yangtze River Delta Medical Alliance) to expand bargaining power.
Interpretation of Centralized Procurement Policies Across Provinces
In 2025, provinces with newly implemented centralized procurement include Hubei, Xinjiang, and Beijing; potential provinces for centralized procurement include Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi, and Jilin. Specifically, in April 2025, the Hubei Provincial Government Procurement Network released the announcement for the "Hubei Provincial County Medical Community Equipment Standardization and Quality Improvement Project" with a budget of 76 million RMB, covering 7 MRI units. In April 2025, the Health Commission of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region released the "Detailed Situation of the County Medical Community Equipment Renewal Project" with a budget of 600 million RMB, mainly including medical imaging, radiotherapy, and examination and testing equipment. In 2025, Beijing municipal hospitals adopted a hospital group joint procurement model, forming a procurement consortium by multiple municipal hospitals to uniformly implement volume-based procurement, with a high procurement package amount. Potential provinces for centralized procurement include Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Shanxi, and Jilin Province. For instance, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has released the "Working Norms for Centralized Procurement of Medical Equipment (Trial) (Draft for Comments)", and the institutional framework is basically completed.
Note: To view more complete data, please visit the official website or official WeChat account of Gewu Zhisheng to download the shared version of the "2026 China Medical Imaging Equipment Industry Market White Paper - Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)".
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