The Chinese government issued a circular on Monday that intends to tighten controls for medical service fees and drug costs.

The Ministry of Health and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine jointly issued the circular.

The circular stated that public health and traditional Chinese medicine administrations should set up control indices for medical care organizations of all kinds and prohibit them from raising fees or charges without government approval. Organizations should not charge extra fees for unregistered services or repeatedly charge fees for the same service.

The circular stipulated that any medical organizations violating the regulations would face penalties. Serious cases would result in punishment of leaders of medical organizations, whose offenses would be publicly revealed.

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2008)