The Economic Issue of On-Line Hemodiafiltration within the Japanese Medical Reimbursement System

Abstract

One major issue of Japan's health care system is that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) centrally decides on the prices of medical services. Because of this, even if a treatment is deemed superior by the actual medical service provider, it may not be economically feasible to carry out. On-line hemodiafiltration has been reported to be an effective and favorable treatment modality, but the number of treated patients has declined since its approval in 2010 due to its low reimbursement price determined by MHLW. In this way, the problem with the Japanese medical reimbursement system is that MHLW's policy measures can thus affect the details of actual medical practices.