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Published procedure prices

Ear, nose and throat surgery in China: the published price

Three lines: removing the tonsils, clearing the sinuses by an endoscopic total ethmoidectomy, and a canal-wall-up mastoidectomy for the mastoid bone behind the ear. The last two are priced per side, because a surgeon operating on both sides bills for both. The packs, the consumables and the theatre are not in the lines.

The published price lines

Every line Beijing's schedule publishes for this procedure, with the project code the hospital bills against and the date the schedule took effect. One row per line, not one total.

ItemPublished price
Tonsillectomy
Project code: HGS75301 · Schedule name: 扁桃体切除术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$65per operation¥436
Endoscopic total ethmoidectomy
Project code: HGF50605 · Schedule name: 经鼻内镜全组鼻窦开放术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$135per side¥906
Canal-wall-up mastoidectomy
Project code: HFJ77301 · Schedule name: 完壁式乳突根治术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Excluded from this price line: 不含移植材料切取 Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$208per side¥1,394

Source: Jun 15, 2019

Chinese hospitals publish prices in CNY; the CNY figures are converted for readability using an indicative rate and are not a quoted price. International-department services are priced by each hospital and are typically well above these statutory rates. Always obtain a written quote before travelling.

What this price is

A line in Beijing's published medical service price schedule: the rate a hospital in that city bills against for the procedure itself, for a patient on the standard public ward. It is not a quote, not an estimate and not a total. An international department sets its own prices, and a patient who is not on the Chinese insurance system is usually charged under that department's list — which is higher, sometimes considerably higher.

What the line does not cover

A published surgical price is the procedure line, never the invoice. The schedule says which items each line excludes, and the row above prints that list. Sutures, haemostatic materials, drains, the laparoscope and its consumables, staplers, clips, energy devices, anti-adhesion film, glue, the implant or mesh, the fixation device, imaging guidance in theatre and the clean operating theatre itself are billed on top. So are the ward, the medicines and the investigations before and after. The figure in the table is the part that is published; the invoice is not.

What the stay costs on top

A bed is a bed, wherever you are admitted, so the published ward rates apply to every one of these procedures. They are per day, and they are the clearest published account of what actually drives cost in a Chinese hospital: ward class, not privacy.

What a hospital bed costs per day in Beijing
  • General ward bed¥50
    / day
  • Three-bed room¥60
    / day
  • Intensive care unit bed¥60
    / day
  • Single room¥80
    / day
  • ISO-7 cleanroom bed¥300
    / day
  • Special protective ward bed¥1,100
    / day

Published daily rates. The spread across room types is small — a single room costs ¥30 more than a shared one — while the spread across ward classes is 22 times. The multiplier in a Chinese hospital is ward class, not privacy.

Ward rates (per day)

Where to have it

The hospitals we list that carry this specialty, with the reputation positions we can attribute to a source. A published schedule line tells you what the procedure costs in a Chinese city. It does not tell you which hospital to go to, and it is not a quality ranking.

ENT

#3in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		PLA General Hospital中国人民解放军总医院 · Beijing
#4in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Peking Union Medical College Hospital中国医学科学院北京协和医院 · Beijing
#5in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University中山大学附属第一医院 · Guangzhou
#6in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital上海交通大学医学院附属第九人民医院 · Shanghai
#7in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Shanghai Sixth People's Hospital上海市第六人民医院 · Shanghai
#8in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		West China Hospital, Sichuan University四川大学华西医院 · Chengdu
#9in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Union Hospital, Huazhong University of Science and Technology华中科技大学同济医学院附属协和医院 · Wuhan
#10in ENT
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Xiangya Hospital, Central South University中南大学湘雅医院 · Changsha

Other procedures with published prices

The rest of the schedule we have read, grouped by the operation a patient would name.