During a hospital stay, ask for the bill and check it line by line. Ask about items that yibao (basic medical insurance) will not reimburse before you agree. If it does not match, complain to the hospital's price line first, and if that fails, report it to the yibao department

During a stay you can ask for a bill. It lists the unit price, the quantity, and the date of each drug and each test. For a drug or a test that yibao will not reimburse, other than emergency rescue, the hospital must have your agreement, or a family member's, first. If you find a repeated charge, or a charge for something that was not done, call the hospital's price-complaint line first. If the hospital does not accept it, report it to the yibao department.

Cost

No money. During the stay, ask for a bill every few days and check it. A pass takes about a dozen minutes. The hard part is putting aside the embarrassment of asking the doctors and nurses.

Benefit

The Regulations on the Supervision and Administration of Medical Security Fund Use say a designated hospital must "truthfully issue fee documents and related materials to the insured person." The insured person also has the right to require the hospital to issue them truthfully. The hospital must not over-test, must not charge twice for the same item, must not charge above the standard, and must not split an item into pieces to charge for it. For a drug or a service outside the scope the yibao fund pays, other than an emergency or a rescue, the insured person, or a close relative or guardian, has to agree. If these rules are broken, the yibao department orders a correction. If the yibao fund loses money, it orders the money returned, and then a fine of 1 to 2 times the loss. Using an item yibao does not reimburse without agreement, and refusing to correct it, draws a fine of 10000 to 50000 yuan. The National Health Commission's 2019 Provisions on the Administration of Internal Price Conduct of Medical Institutions require hospitals to set up a bill system, including an electronic bill. When a patient needs it, the hospital must print it. The bill must state the name and code of the item, the drug, and the consumable, and also the unit price, the pricing unit, the date of use, the quantity, and the amount. Care charged by disease type, or by DRG (a bundled payment grouped by disease), is not in this requirement. The hospital must post, in a prominent place, the phone numbers for price inquiries and complaints. Complaints follow a rule that the first person asked is responsible, and the person who receives the complaint must record the content and the result. A report to the yibao department goes to the website, phone, fax, or mailing address it has published. It can be anonymous. Personal information in a report filed under a real name must be kept confidential. If the report is verified, the reporter is rewarded under national rules (nationwide, as of October 2026).

Notes

A report to the yibao department is about the hospital misusing the yibao fund. What the regulations write is an order to correct, a return of yibao fund money, and a fine. They do not write that the extra you paid is returned to you. Getting back the extra you paid yourself depends mainly on the hospital correcting the charge, so go to the hospital's price-complaint window first, and keep the bill and the record of what was said. Suing in court over a few hundred yuan, with the ordinary procedure of a first-instance trial starting at 6 months and the lawyer's fee paid by you, is usually not worth it. A report has to give a concrete lead: which line on the bill, which day, and how many times it was charged. If you only want to ask about reimbursement policy, call the yibao inquiry line. That is not a report. An item you cannot read is worth asking the nurses' station or the admissions office about. It is not necessarily an improper charge. A drug yibao will not reimburse is not necessarily a drug you should not use. Ask how much it costs per day, and whether there is a reimbursable substitute, before you sign. At discharge, ask for a full bill and keep it with the records. See item 5 of this section (keep your own copy of the records and images). The benefit magnitude is set at medium, by judgment: no official figure was found for how much a single patient overpays. Under this book's thresholds, a few hundred to a few thousand yuan counts as medium. The beneficiary is mainly you and your family. Checking the bill for an elder in hospital matters especially.

Sources · 1

1. 国务院 (2021). 医疗保障基金使用监督管理条例（国务院令第 735 号，第十五、十七、三十五、三十八、三十九条）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2021-02/19/content_5…：「除急诊、抢救等特殊情形外，提供医疗保障基金支付范围以外的医药服务的，应当经参保人员或者其近亲属、监护人同意。」「参保人员有权要求定点医药机构如实出具费用单据和相关资料。」；国家卫生健康委、国家中医药局 (2019). 关于印发医疗机构内部价格行为管理规定的通知（国卫财务发〔2019〕64 号，第十五、十六、十八条）. gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2020-01/02/content_5…：「医疗机构应当建立费用清单（含电子清单）制度，以多种形式向患者提供医疗服务、药品、医用耗材等费用清单（病种、DRG除外），并在患者需要时提供打印服务。」；国家医疗保障局 (2022). 医疗保障基金使用监督管理举报处理暂行办法（国家医疗保障局令第 5 号，第六、七、八、十六、二十一、二十五条）. gov.cn/gongbao/content/2022/content_5687509.htm