For a chronic illness already diagnosed at a hospital and now stable, a refill can be a follow-up on that hospital's internet hospital. The first visit for this illness cannot be online

If a chronic illness was diagnosed at a hospital, the condition is stable, and the medicines to be prescribed are still those same ones, you can do a follow-up online with the original hospital, and the medicine can be mailed home. Where local yibao has brought this in, you can settle it directly with yibao. The first visit for this illness, or a change in the condition, means the doctor must send you to the hospital to be seen in person.

Cost

No money. You find the hospital's internet-hospital entrance on your phone and complete real-name verification. The consultation fee for an online follow-up at a public hospital is charged as an ordinary outpatient visit. If the medicine is mailed home, you pay the delivery fee yourself. Yibao (basic medical insurance) does not reimburse it.

Benefit

What you save is the time of each round trip to the hospital and of queuing to register. The Interim Measures for the Administration of Internet Diagnosis and Treatment say that online care can cover follow-up visits for only some common illnesses and chronic illnesses. The condition is that an in-person hospital has already made a clear diagnosis, the doctor has your records, and the follow-up is for that same diagnosis. The measures say "internet diagnosis and treatment must not be provided to a patient on a first visit." If the condition changes, or the doctor needs to examine you in person, the hospital must stop the online care at once and direct you to an in-person hospital. An online prescription needs the physician's electronic signature. After a pharmacist checks it, a third party may be entrusted to deliver the medicine to your home. Anesthesia drugs, psychotropic drugs, and other specially controlled drugs cannot be prescribed online. Prescribing online for a child under 6 requires a guardian and a physician in the relevant specialty to be present. Reimbursement by yibao is in the National Healthcare Security Administration's 2020 document Yi Bao Fa [2020] No. 45. It says that, for a follow-up prescription at an "internet-plus" designated hospital in the local pooling area, the consultation fee and the drug fee can be paid under the local yibao rules. The part you pay yourself can be paid, under the rules, from an employee yibao individual account. The fee for delivering the drugs is not in yibao. Localities may start with outpatient chronic and special diseases and gradually widen what is paid. The local yibao agency must publish the list of such designated hospitals. Yi Bao Fa [2019] No. 47 says that an internet follow-up at a public hospital, whichever rank of doctor sees you, is charged at the price of an ordinary outpatient consultation item (nationwide, as of October 2026).

Notes

First ask the attending doctor whether this illness can be a follow-up online, then find the internet-hospital entrance in the hospital's public account or app. Use the internet hospital opened by the hospital that diagnosed you. Whether yibao can settle it is set locally. Check the designated list published by the local yibao department, or call and ask. For someone enrolled elsewhere, the document only says "explore" direct online settlement away from home. Ask clearly before you use it. If the condition is stable and the community clinic has your drug, the clinic can prescribe 12 weeks at a time. See Section 16, item 5 (a community clinic can prescribe up to 12 weeks of medicine at a time). If the community clinic does not have this drug, or a specialist has to watch the dose and adjust it, an online follow-up fits better. The benefit magnitude is set at medium, by judgment: a trip to a large hospital once a month to refill medicine takes about half a day, which comes to about an hour a week. The beneficiary is mainly you and your family. Elders who have trouble getting around save the most.

Sources · 1

1. 国家卫生健康委、国家中医药局 (2018). 关于印发互联网诊疗管理办法（试行）等 3 个文件的通知（国卫医发〔2018〕25 号；《互联网诊疗管理办法（试行）》第二、十六、十八、十九条，《互联网医院管理办法（试行）》第十九、二十条）. gov.cn/gongbao/content/2019/content_5358684.htm：「不得对首诊患者开展互联网诊疗活动。」；国家医疗保障局 (2020). 关于积极推进“互联网+”医疗服务医保支付工作的指导意见（医保发〔2020〕45 号，第（三）（四）（五）项）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-11/03/content_5…：「参保人在本统筹地区“互联网+”医疗服务定点医疗机构复诊并开具处方发生的诊察费和药品费，可以按照统筹地区医保规定支付。其中个人负担的费用，可按规定由职工医保个人账户支付。提供药品配送服务的费用不纳入医保支付范围。」；国家医疗保障局 (2019). 关于完善“互联网+”医疗服务价格和医保支付政策的指导意见（医保发〔2019〕47 号，「针对各类服务特点细化价格政策」一项）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2019-08/30/content_5…：「公立医疗机构开展互联网复诊，由不同级别医务人员提供服务，均按普通门诊诊察类项目价格收费」