Do chronic diseases need to be applied every year?

There is no nationally unified “must apply every year” requirement for the chronic disease medical insurance benefits we often talk about. Whether to apply repeatedly depends entirely on the rules of the insured place and the type of chronic disease you apply for.

Irreversible lifelong chronic diseases such as hypertension, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and radiotherapy and chemotherapy for malignant tumors are now "registered once and valid for a long time" in most coordinating areas across the country. As long as you participate in the insurance normally and do not stop paying, subsequent annual outpatient medicines and related treatments can be reimbursed normally for chronic diseases, and there is no need to submit repeated application materials. Just like Uncle Li downstairs in my house, he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2019 and filed for chronic disease registration. After that, he paid for the employee medical insurance every year. In the past few years, he went to community hospitals to prescribe metformin and directly swiped the medical insurance to calculate the chronic disease reimbursement ratio. He never went to the medical insurance bureau to reapply, which saved a lot of trouble.

Of course not everything is a one-and-done solution. Some places will set a review cycle ranging from 1 to 3 years for some chronic diseases that may be reversible, such as hyperthyroidism, chronic active hepatitis, or local policies have clear qualification review requirements. Only a few areas will require a review once a year. However, most of these reviews do not require re-application throughout the entire process. As long as a recent review report is submitted to confirm that the condition still meets the criteria for chronic disease identification, many places can even submit online without going to an offline window. Last year, I helped my cousin review his psoriasis chronic disease. He was insured in Jiaxing, Zhejiang, and the local government required a review every three years. I directly uploaded his dermatology visit records for the past three months to the local medical insurance applet, and he passed the review on the same day. There was no errand in the whole process, which was much simpler than the first application.

If you are really unsure about your local rules, there is no need to fiddle around. Just call the 12393 medical insurance service hotline and ask a few questions. If you really need regular review, the medical insurance department will send reminders in advance through text messages and official accounts. As long as you don’t miss the time to submit materials, you don’t have to worry about applying every year.