LRS: Post-Operating Tracking--Reimbursement of NCMS

We met Hongyan's Mother (in red) and her cousin

Little Red Scarf is in Lanzhou, Gansu province and provides financial support and encouragement to children suffering from congenital heart disease. In addition, they provide families with post-operative care and help the children sustain a healthy lifestyle.

One month after Hongyan was discharged from hospital, we accompanied her mother to reimburse from New Rural Cooperation Medical System (NCMS). We would like to learn something more about the system. When we saw her mother, she looked great.

According to Hongyan’s cousin, the office of NCMS is in the county hospital. It was noon. Yun Yun and Hongyan’s mother re-organized and printed the paper works for the reimbursement. Hongyan’s mother is an illiterate, so her cousin accompanied her to the county. Her cousin read relevant regulations of reimbursement to Hongyan’s mother. According to the staff, the reimbursement now should be done at township clinic level.

The township clinic is 40 kilometers away from the county. There are 2 shifts of bus. If the 2 shifts were missed, they had to take private small bus, which takes 50 minutes and 60 RMB.

The paper works were not complete. Hongyan is juvenile and has no ID, so they need to take a resident certification from the local police office and a photo. When we learned all paper works they need, we took actions separately. The only photo shop was closed and we had to go back to the county.

The next day, all papers were ready and submitted to the staff. When we asked about the reimbursement ratio, the staff told us there were new policies and they were not sure. The family would receive the money in early June.

With the field visit, we got to know the process of the NCMS. Though everything was not going well, we still learned a lot. It was valuable experience and we would tell our clients and serve them well. 

Original article written by Ying Guan, translated by Maggie Li, and edited by Yanyan Zhang

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Met with doctors and got to know the reimburse process