National Development and Reform Commission and other eight departments: Promoting high-quality development of universal pension services and fostering development service institutions.

On February 28th, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments issued a notice on the issuance of "Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Inclusive Elderly Care Services". It mentioned the cultivation and development of service institutions. It supports all types of operating entities to develop chain, group-based inclusive support elderly care institutions. Central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises that focus on healthy elderly care and have a health-care business sector have been encouraged to play a leading role in brand building, service standards, facility operation, and personnel training. The use of central budget investment to drive development and strengthen the construction of inclusive support elderly care institutions. The full text is as follows: Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments on the issuance of "Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Inclusive Elderly Care Services" Development and Reform Commission [2025] No. 211 To the governments of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps: "The Notice on the Issuance of Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Inclusive Elderly Care Services" has been approved by the State Council and is now issued to you for implementation in conjunction with the actual situation. National Development and Reform Commission Ministry of Civil Affairs Ministry of Finance Ministry of Natural Resources Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs National Health Commission State Administration for Market Regulation February 20, 2025 Several Measures to Promote the High-Quality Development of Inclusive Elderly Care Services Promoting the development of affordable, quality-assured, and sustainable inclusive elderly care services is a strong measure to adhere to the people-centered development ideology and actively address the aging population. In order to deepen the reform and development of elderly care services, and focusing on the prominent issues in the system and mechanism of inclusive elderly care services, the following measures are proposed to promote the high-quality development of inclusive elderly care services. First, promote the improvement and expansion of service supply. Building on meeting the care service needs of elderly people who are disabled, dementia, etc., further expand the content and scope of inclusive elderly care services. By means of government support, corporate concessions, family payments, social participation, etc., achieve more continuous and wider service supply. Supporting local capacity-building in home-based elderly care, promoting the continuous enrichment and improvement of home-based elderly care services. Actively promote the application of artificial intelligence-assisted diagnosis and treatment, rehabilitation training, health monitoring equipment in inclusive support elderly care institutions. Encourage facilities such as rehabilitation nursing, elderly canteen, activity venues within inclusive support elderly care institutions to open to the community, support the chain development of community service facilities, and provide meal assistance, bathing assistance, cleaning assistance, life services, day care, rehabilitation nursing services for more elderly people. Second, cultivate and develop service institutions. Support all types of operating entities to develop chain, group-based inclusive support elderly care institutions. Central enterprises and local state-owned enterprises that focus on healthy elderly care as their main business and have health care business sectors should play a leading role in brand building, service standards, facility operation, and personnel training. Fully leverage the role of central budget investment to drive inclusive support elderly care institution construction. Encourage the use of lottery public welfare funds to support the construction of inclusive elderly care service facilities and equipment in accordance with regulations. Publicly operated elderly care institutions should open up spare beds to society while fulfilling their basic guarantee function, providing inclusive elderly care services. Promote private elderly care institutions, county-level and township (street) publicly operated elderly care institutions to speed up the improvement of corresponding equipment and facilities for the elderly with age, disability, and dementia care needs. Encourage qualified areas to propose targeted support and nurturing measures, guiding more private enterprises and returning rural residents to establish mutual assistance-type inclusive elderly care service institutions in rural areas. Third, coordinate the use of existing assets. Local development and reform departments should take the lead in reforming or transforming party and government agencies, state-owned enterprises and institutions suitable for reconstruction or transformation into inclusive elderly care service facilities, training recuperation institutions, idle buildings, schools, etc., and practically promote the resolution of difficulties in planning adjustments, real estate certificates, housing construction and expansion, fire inspections, and filing of elderly care institutions. Increase policy support around revitalizing existing assets. For the original production and operating land transferred to party and government agencies and state-owned enterprise training recuperation institutions, which are used for the construction of inclusive elderly care service facilities after reform, subject to existing regulations and corresponding procedures, pricing contributions (equity participation), authorization, etc., may be adopted. For existing assets with historical lack of title deeds that are difficult to replace, under relevant regulations, promote their transformation into inclusive elderly care service facilities as appropriate. Encourage qualified areas to provide appropriate support to inclusive support elderly care institutions in land use, water and electricity prices, bed operation, etc., to effectively reduce the operating burden of institutions. Encourage rural areas to coordinate resources based on population distribution and strictly implement rural fire, earthquake resistance standards and regulations, upgrade the original nursing homes, idle school buildings, etc., through renovations to build inclusive support elderly care institutions. Fourth, improve the mechanism for determining service institution prices. Based on the accessibility, affordability, and sustainability of inclusive elderly care services, comprehensively consider factors such as the actual cost of service institutions, government subsidies, local income levels, public affordability, market supply and demand, nature of service institutions, etc., to improve and perfect the mechanism for determining prices of inclusive elderly care service institutions. For public elderly care institutions, basic service charges are managed through government-guided price control, and for socially operated inclusive elderly care institutions, government-guided price management of basic services or guidance through setting reference ranges and other methods is strengthened. Fifth, optimize comprehensive supervision and services. Improve the provincial comprehensive supervision system for elderly care services, strengthen coordination between the Civil Affairs, Development and Reform, and Market Supervision departments, guide and supervise inclusive care service institutions to operate standardizedly, charge reasonably, continuously improve service quality, and promptly correct behaviors that do not meet quality standards, do not follow government-guided prices, do not set prices as required, etc. Improve elderly care service standards and evaluation systems, strengthen third-party assessments, include service quality and feedback from service recipients in evaluations, and use evaluation results as a consideration factor for relevant rating assessments. Sixth, create a favorable development environment. Support local governments in formulating and implementing local regulations on elderly care services based on their actual conditions, improve the legal system of inclusive elderly care services, and legally protect the rights of the elderly. Explore long-term volunteer elderly care services, mobilize social forces extensively to provide voluntary services such as life services, health services, spiritual comfort, legal assistance, etc., for the elderly. Promote the traditional virtues of respecting, loving, and assisting the elderly, and build a social atmosphere of elderly care, filial piety, and reverence for the elderly.Environment.Each region should combine the local population aging development situation and the level of development of the elderly care service industry, highlight key points, strengthen implementation, expand inclusive elderly care services, strengthen the construction of the elderly care service system, and better meet the elderly care needs of the vast elderly population. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Ministry of Civil Affairs and other departments, will strengthen tracking evaluation, summarizing feedback, and timely promote and publicize typical cases and successful experiences in local areas. This article was selected from the National Development and Reform Commission, GMTEight editor: Chen Wenfang.