The Beijing Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau has issued the rule that people are required to present their medical insurance handbook in order to enjoy the benefit of the medical insurance, as of July 1.

According to the new rule, people who are covered by medical insurance have to take along their blue medical insurance handbook, known as a "blue book", when seeking medical care in any designated facility. Without this, an insured person cannot be reimbursed partially from the medical insurance.

Beijing has produced special bar codes that must be stuck on the blue books of those covered by the medical insurance system. At each visit to a healthcare facility, a worker must scan the bar code before administering medical care. This allows the healthcare system to keep a detailed account of each patient.

Insiders from the Labour Bureau reveal that if an insured person has not yet received a bar code, the hospital can simply input relevant information into the computer manually, and provide a receipt for medical expenditure incurred at the time.

If people fail to present their blue book for whatever reason, they can receive a temporary certificate, issued by the appropriate hospital or institution. With that certificate and their personal identification card, they can still receive preferential treatment.

By now, some 5 million such bar codes have been issued in Beijing, covering most of the population who have medical insurance.

(CRIENGLISH.com June 2, 2007)