Chinese government has issued a circular on Monday intended to tighten control of costs for medical services and drugs.

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, charging extra fees for unregistered services or repeatedly charging fees for the same service.

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

(Xinhua News Agency January 29, 2008)