On May 19, 2026, the National Healthcare Security Administration and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Supervision and Management of the Use of Personal Accounts for Basic Medical Insurance for Employees in Designated Retail Pharmacies," establishing a whitelist system for payments made through personal accounts for basic medical insurance for employees in designated retail pharmacies. Fever-reducing patches, as medical consumables, were explicitly included in the product category eligible for inclusion in the whitelist.
According to the "Notice," products included in the whitelist should be drugs, medical devices, and medical consumables that have been formally approved and registered or filed by the drug regulatory authorities, can be sold in retail pharmacies, are closely related to treatment, have strong medical attributes, and are reasonably priced. Specifically, this includes drugs (chemical drugs, biological products, traditional Chinese medicine preparations, and Chinese herbal medicine slices), medical devices (such as thermometers, blood pressure monitors, blood glucose meters, and rehabilitation aids), and medical consumables (such as fever-reducing patches, medical masks, cotton swabs, adhesive bandages, and pathogen detection reagents). The notice also clarifies that non-medical products such as rice, flour, oil, food, cosmetics, health products, and daily necessities, as well as certain "medical device" products (such as some toothpastes and face masks) that are only eligible for medical insurance reimbursement but have no actual medical value, and medical devices that do not meet the "basic needs" function (such as contact lenses and massage equipment), must not be included in the whitelist and cannot be paid for using personal medical insurance accounts. Provincial medical insurance departments should, in principle, issue a unified provincial payment whitelist by the end of September 2026. This system aims to clarify the boundaries of medical insurance payment policies and prevent medical insurance funds from being used to pay for products that do not meet the "basic needs" function of basic medical insurance. Furthermore, the notice points out that the whitelist is not static and can be dynamically adjusted by local authorities. The National Healthcare Security Administration will also continue to strengthen the supervision of funds in designated retail pharmacies and investigate and punish any violations of medical insurance fund usage.