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Published procedure prices

Lung surgery: lobectomy and chest mass in China: the published price

Three lines: removing a lobe of the lung by open surgery, removing a lobe with a thoracoscope — which costs more in the schedule and is a different recovery — and removing a mass from the front of the mediastinum. The lung tissue is not in the line, and neither are the staples, the drain and the theatre.

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
Lobectomy of the lung
Project code: HJF73301 · Schedule name: 肺叶切除术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Excluded from this price line: 不含淋巴结清扫、病理学检查 Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$469per operation¥3,149
Thoracoscopic lobectomy of the lung
Project code: HJF73501 · Schedule name: 经胸腔镜肺叶切除术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Excluded from this price line: 不含淋巴结清扫、病理学检查 Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$704per operation¥4,724
Excision of an anterior mediastinal mass
Project code: HJN73301 · Schedule name: 前纵隔肿物切除术
Procedure line · Standard public ward
Excluded from this price line: 不含淋巴结清扫、病理学检查 Procedure line only. Implants, consumables, imaging guidance and the operating theatre are billed on top. Standard public ward, not an international-department price.
$499per operation¥3,353

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.

Thoracic Surgery

#4in Thoracic Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		West China Hospital, Sichuan University四川大学华西医院 · Chengdu
#6in Thoracic Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Zhongshan Hospital (Shanghai)复旦大学附属中山医院 · Shanghai
#7in Thoracic Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Peking University People's Hospital北京大学人民医院 · Beijing
#9in Thoracic Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center中山大学肿瘤防治中心 · Guangzhou
#10in Thoracic Surgery
2023 · Fudan SRCAIH		Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center复旦大学附属肿瘤医院 · Shanghai

Other procedures with published prices

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