Start To Think About Entering China's Health Care Market

Start To Think About Entering China's Health Care Market

October 17, 2014, Law360

Tim Stratford authored this article on China’s tightly regulated health care sector:

"The Chinese government has announced the launch of a pilot scheme allowing for the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals (“WFOHs”) through greenfield investment or mergers and acquisitions in three centrally governed municipalities (Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai), which have provincial status, and four provinces (Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong and Hainan)."

"The Aug. 27 announcement was made through a joint administrative notice between two key central government agencies, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (“NHFPC”) and the Ministry of Commerce (“MOFCOM”), and is yet another example that the Xi administration is sincere in its rhetoric about using the Shanghai FTZ as a test lab for potentially nationwide economic reforms. It also comes at a time when the government is trying to keep up with a rapidly aging populace as well as ease growing tensions nationwide between doctors and patients evidenced by a series of knife attacks by patients against their doctors."