BCIwiki (bciwiki.com) — From September 1, 2025, Zhejiang province in eastern China brought the non-invasive brain-computer interface fitting fee into basic medical insurance payment, managed as Category B with a 10% patient co-payment. It was the first time a BCI-related service had been covered by medical insurance in China, nearly a year before Zhejiang issued its BCI industry document.
That document, measures to promote industry-academia-research collaboration on BCIs numbered Zhezhengban Fa [2026] No. 33, was dated July 16, 2026 and published on August 12 by the General Office of the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Government. It contains 18 measures in five areas.
The coverage is narrow. Notice Zhe Yibao Fa [2025] No. 21 limits payment to fitting smart bionic prostheses, once per residual limb. An amputee’s first fitting of a smart bionic prosthesis is covered, a second fitting on the same limb is not, and non-invasive rehabilitation training for stroke patients falls outside it. Invasive implantation and removal, along with separately billed electrodes, remain self-paid.
Prices were set by notice Zhe Yibao Fa [2025] No. 14: RMB 6,580 for invasive implantation, RMB 3,150 for removal and RMB 960 for non-invasive fitting, with a 30% children’s surcharge. These are pilot prices for provincial public hospitals in Hangzhou; cities may set their own prices at or below them, and Hangzhou set implantation at RMB 6,580 for tertiary hospitals and RMB 5,593 for secondary and lower.
Zhejiang chose the lowest-priced item with the clearest indication and the most contained fund risk. As of August 2026, only Zhejiang and Beijing had brought BCI services into insurance payment, with Beijing covering all three items under Category A at four hospitals; Shanghai explicitly excluded them.
The industry document came late and is not called an action plan. By 2025 Zhejiang held 1,058 valid BCI invention patents, more than 90% in Hangzhou, companies including BrainCo, Chengyi Technology and Jialiang Medical were based there, and main BCI companies had revenue of more than RMB 2 billion. The measures address bottlenecks in an industry already operating, with a focus on industry-academia-research collaboration.
By 2027 Zhejiang aims for an effective company-led collaboration mechanism, more than five representative products in pilot use and BCI future industry revenue of more than RMB 5 billion. Giving companies the lead contrasts with Anhui’s university-led model.
Funding has four tiers. Major provincial science projects receive up to RMB 10 million each for products including auditory and visual prostheses, smart prosthetic hands and legs, and depression treatment. Research hospitals deeply involved in preclinical studies that help products reach market receive up to RMB 8 million per project. Applied basic research projects receive up to RMB 3 million. Leading international, national and major local standards earns RMB 1 million, RMB 500,000 and RMB 100,000 respectively.
The RMB 8 million tier goes to hospitals. Preclinical work requires biocompatibility testing, long-term large-animal implantation and reliability studies, tying up staff and beds without product revenue. The same measure exempts beds used only for clinical research from bed efficiency, turnover, occupancy and DRG performance assessments, which speaks directly to how public hospital departments are evaluated.
The review commitment is the shortest among the provinces. Class II BCI devices with clear clinical value and strong innovation can enter a special review procedure completed within 40 working days; Shandong had pledged 90 working days nine days earlier. A companion green channel for listing medical consumables promises completion within 10 working days of application.
The spatial layout makes Hangzhou the core, with Ningbo on new materials, Wenzhou on clinical application demonstration, Jiaxing on key components and Shaoxing on advanced chip manufacturing, packaging and testing. Placing clinical demonstration in Wenzhou spreads applications beyond the capital, where Zhejiang’s medical resources are concentrated.
Three things to watch: when invasive implantation enters insurance payment, how long the first Class II products take under the 40-day procedure, and whether revenue growth from RMB 2 billion to RMB 5 billion comes from existing leaders or new companies.