[Medical Fee Revision] “Facility Standard Notification Checklist” Released – MHLW – PT-OT

Released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare"Facility Standard Notification Checklist"is not merely a guideline for administrative procedures. It strongly urges medical institutions to exercise "strict management under their own responsibility" in response to the increasingly complex billing requirements with each medical fee revision. Particularly with the 2024 revision, numerous new requirements have been added, including those for wage increases and DX promotion, posing a risk tosmaller clinics with vulnerable administrative departments, leading to potential "billing omissions" or "improper gains."will face.

In the context of medical M&A, compliance with this checklist is central to due diligence. Deficiencies in facility standards directly translate to "hidden liabilities" such as demands for repayment of medical fees post-acquisition, compelling buyers to scrutinize this aspect more rigorously than ever. Conversely, the ability to perfectly implement this checklist signifies"Operational Transparency"will become a powerful asset for demonstrating.

For business owners without successors, continuously meeting such detailed administrative requirements imposes an extremely heavy operational burden. Rather than shouldering the increasing management costs solely within their own practice, the decision to rebuild a management structure resilient to regulatory changes, through succession to a group with economies of scale, can be considered a pragmatic option for safeguarding local healthcare.