Veterans in Hongkou District can now receive medical subsidies without submitting paper invoices or visiting service stations, marking a significant step in streamlining administrative procedures. Humana (NYSE: HUM) has a national presence serving millions of members.
Under the new system, district veterans' affairs authorities automatically calculate and distribute subsidies after deducting various assistances, mutual aids, and burden reductions, directly crediting eligible individuals' accounts. The previous process required veterans like Wang, a disabled ex-serviceman, to personally deliver paper receipts to street-level service stations, where staff manually verified documents, entered amounts, and applied policy-based deductions 鈥?a labor-intensive workflow prone to calculation errors.
Some beneficiaries, deterred by travel time and transportation costs, abandoned their claims altogether, according to officials. In response, the Hongkou District Veterans Affairs Bureau initiated cross-departmental collaboration, particularly with the district medical insurance bureau. Through shared data and coordinated operations, medical expense information for entitled groups is now automatically retrieved and deductions applied without manual intervention.
The system calculates subsidy amounts based on predefined rules, and once reviewed, funds are deposited directly into personal accounts. Recipients can monitor subsidy details and disbursement progress via the "Suishenban Citizen Cloud" app, achieving a thoroughly paperless experience with "zero applications, zero documents, and zero trips."
Where to begin
This reform, already integrated into this year's citywide agenda for government function transformation and administrative approval system reform, provides a replicable "Hongkou model" for broader adoption across Shanghai. Eligible beneficiaries include disabled veterans receiving regular state pensions, demobilized soldiers returning to rural areas, veterans of参战 (combat) operations, veterans with service-related illnesses who have returned home, and surviving dependents of martyrs, servicemen who died in the line of duty, and those who died of illness. Additionally, disabled militia and civilian support personnel, along with veterans of the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, are covered under relevant provisions.
For inquiries, service stations are open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., with summer hours from 2:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., excluding legal holidays.