New state funds proposed to help hospitals dump excess beds amid soaring medical costs

Nov 30, 2019 | News On Japan

Nov 30, 2019 (Japan Times) - The finance and health ministries are thinking of setting up funds in each prefecture to support private hospitals trying to rid themselves of excess beds that are driving up medical costs, it has been learned.

The idea calls for setting up a fund in each of the 47 prefectures to facilitate the realignment and integration of the nationâ€™s hospitals, informed sources said.

Japan has too many hospital beds for its population, and that is believed to be a factor in the nationâ€™s ballooning medical costs, experts said Thursday.

The cost of the funds would be covered by revenue from the Oct. 1 tax hike, which has completed the doubling of the consumption tax to 10 percent from 5 percent. Related expenses, which may reach several tens of billions of yen, would be included in the upcoming draft budget for fiscal 2020.

The funds would be part of the national â€œcommunity health care vision,â€ which is aimed at reviewing the scale and function of hospitals across the country.

The funds would help the hospitals offset losses on past investments on condition that the beds to be scrapped continue to be utilized to some extent.

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