Japan Diet OKs Bill to Address Uneven Availability of Doctors

Tokyo, Dec. 5 (Jiji Press)–The Diet, Japan’s parliament, enacted Friday a bill aimed at addressing the uneven availability of doctors in the country and promoting digital transformation in the medical sector. The legislation to revise the medical care law was approved at the day’s plenary meeting of the House of Councillors, the upper chamber of the parliament. Measures in the revised law will be implemented in stages from April 2026. Under the amended law, prefectural governments can designate areas struggling to offer medical services sustainably as areas where doctors should be secured intensively. Allowances will be provided to doctors working in these areas using premium revenues from public medical insurance programs. The opening of clinics without inpatient facilities will be restricted in areas with many doctors. The revised law will authorize prefectural governments to ask medical institutions to provide services that are insufficient, such as emergency care, and make stronger requests to and disclose the names of noncompliant institutions. As part of efforts to advance digital transformation, the revised law will allow medical institutions nationwide to share electronic medical records for purposes including the fight against infectious diseases. Health Insurance Claims Review & Reimbursement Services, an affiliate of the health ministry, will be renamed and take charge for system management for the online data sharing. The revised law includes the goal of raising the adoption rate for electronic medical records to 100 pct by the end of 2030. Meanwhile, prefectural governments will be allowed to help medical institutions reduce inpatient beds in response to anticipated population declines. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of the Diet, late last month after being modified based on proposals from five parties, including the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its coalition partner, the Japan Innovation Party, also known as Nippon Ishin no Kai, and the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]