On May 23, 2025, the Henan Provincial Government Procurement Network released the winning result of the "Henan Province County Medical Community Equipment Update Project (Phase I)", marking that this imaging equipment upgrade project covering all grassroots medical institutions in the province has entered a substantive implementation stage. A total of 148 CT devices were purchased for the project, with a total budget of 348 million yuan. The final winning bid amount was 203 million yuan, and the overall procurement cost was reduced by more than 40%.
Despite the 16-slice CT being quoted at an extremely low price of 596,800 yuan, the 16-slice CT is required to be equipped with AI-assisted diagnostic software for pulmonary nodules and rib fractures, which is even lower than the individual quotations of some enterprises' AI software modules. Image artificial intelligence seems to have entered the "free" era.
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It is monopolized by four domestic manufacturers
The results of the centralized CT procurement for the first phase of the equipment renewal project of the County medical community of the Health Commission of Henan Province have been officially announced. This centralized procurement project, with the core objective of "hierarchical configuration and technological inclusiveness", purchased a total of 148 CT devices, with a total budget of 348 million yuan. The actual winning bid amount was 203 million yuan, reducing the overall procurement cost by over 40%. The four domestic manufacturers, Wandong Medical, United Imaging Medical, Anke Medical and Neusoft Medical, have won all the bids, marking that the Chinese primary medical imaging equipment market has entered a new stage of "localization +AI empowerment".
This centralized procurement is divided into three major categories based on equipment performance, covering medical institutions at different levels within the county medical community:
64排CT（52台）：
Bid Section 1: United Imaging's uCT 760 won the bid for 31 units, with a winning bid unit price of 2.18 million yuan (budget unit price 4 million yuan), mainly used for advanced imaging such as coronary CTA and low-dose lung screening in regional medical centers;
Bid Section 2:11 units of ANATOM P428 from Anke were awarded, with a winning bid unit price of 2.398 million yuan (budgeted unit price of 3.7 million yuan), supporting one-stop stroke examination.
Bid Section 3: Neusoft's NeuViz 128 won 10 bids with a winning bid unit price of 2.3 million yuan (budgeted unit price of 3.1 million yuan), equipped with an intelligent heart scanning protocol.
32排CT（67台）：
Bid Section 4:42 units of Wandong TurboTom 3S PLUS were awarded, with a winning bid unit price of 922,900 yuan (budgeted unit price of 2.05 million yuan), meeting the rapid examination requirements for emergency chest pain, trauma, etc.
Lot 5: ANATOM 64 Clarity of Anke won the bid for 13 units, with a winning bid unit price of 1.2 million yuan (budgeted unit price of 1.6 million yuan), to enhance the three-dimensional reconstruction capability of orthopedics.
Bid Section 6: United Imaging's uCT 528 won the bid for 12 units, with a winning bid unit price of 1.05 million yuan (budgeted unit price of 1.4 million yuan), supporting high-resolution neurovascular imaging.
16排CT（29台）：
Lot 7: Wandong TurboTom 2400 PLUS won the bid for 19 units at a price of 596,800 yuan per unit (with a budgeted unit price of 1.1 million yuan), and it is required to be equipped with AI functional modules such as lung nodule screening and rib fracture recognition as standard.
Bid Section 8: United Imaging uCT Orion Era won the bid for 10 units, with a winning unit price of 780,000 yuan (budgeted unit price of 1.02 million yuan), and it is required to be equipped with AI functional modules such as lung nodule screening and rib fracture recognition as standard.
From the above information, it can be seen that Wandong Medical emerged as the biggest winner with 61 pieces of equipment and a winning bid amount of 50.0884 million yuan. United Imaging Medical followed closely with 53 pieces of equipment and a winning bid amount of 87.98 million yuan. Anke Medical won the bid for 24 pieces of equipment, with a total bid amount of 41.978 million yuan. Neusoft Medical won the bid for 10 sets of equipment, with a total bid amount of 23 million yuan.02
Is AI entering the "free" era?
This centralized procurement adopts a "stratified and classified" procurement strategy, and equipment is configured based on the differences in the diagnosis and treatment capabilities of county-level medical institutions:
Basic diagnosis and treatment layer: Purchase 29 16-slice CTS, which are required to meet the basic imaging examination needs such as emergency chest pain and trauma, and at the same time be equipped with AI-assisted diagnostic functions such as pulmonary nodule screening and rib fracture recognition.
Comprehensive Diagnosis and treatment layer: 67 32-slice CT machines have been purchased to enhance the imaging analysis capabilities of specialties such as cardiovascular and neurological diseases, and to equip with AI-assisted diagnostic functions for pulmonary nodules, rib fractures, coronary arteries, and stroke.
Regional Medical Center: 52 64-slice CTS have been purchased to support advanced imaging techniques such as low-dose lung screening and coronary CTA.
It is worth noting that while the 16-slice CT equipment won the bid at a low price, it still needs to be equipped with medical-grade AI algorithms, and its technical requirements should be homogenized with those of the equipment in top-tier hospitals.
According to the plan of the Health Commission of Henan Province, this equipment update will cover 80% of the county-level medical communities in the province. It is expected to increase the positive rate of CT examinations in primary medical institutions by 20% and reduce the waiting time for emergency patients to within 30 minutes. With the advancement of the "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Medical Equipment Industry", the trend of large-scale equipment such as CT and MRI being deployed to the grassroots level will further accelerate. Meanwhile, the widespread application of AI technology may become a key path to address the imbalance of medical resources at the grassroots level. However, for image AI software products, it seems to have created an awkward situation.
Firstly, when the total price of a 16-slice CT scan is between 600,000 and 700,000 yuan, it is required to be equipped with AI-assisted diagnostic software for pulmonary nodules and rib fractures, and the separate quotation for the AI software module is also within this price range. According to incomplete statistics, the winning bid prices of AI-assisted diagnosis software for pulmonary nodules from 2023 to 2024 range from 295,000 to 1.47 million yuan. The winning bid price of the AI-assisted diagnosis software for rib fractures from 2023 to 2025 is between 97,000 and 971,000 yuan. Then, if all CTS in the future centralized procurement are equipped with commonly used artificial intelligence software, it will inevitably lead to a predicament in the individual sales of artificial intelligence software.
Secondly, the path for clinical charging at the back end of imaging artificial intelligence software has also been blocked. On November 20, 2024, the National Healthcare Security Administration released the "Guidelines for the Initiation of Radiological Examination Price Items (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines"), which for the first time clearly defined the positioning and charging model of imaging AI in the medical service price system. The policy clearly supports the clinical application of AI technology, but prohibits hospitals from passing on the cost of AI-assisted diagnosis solely to patients. That is to say, AI-assisted diagnosis has "zero new charges" and is bundled with the main project for pricing.
According to the interpretation of the "Guidelines", the main items of radiological examination (such as plain CT scan and enhanced MRI) already include the cost of diagnostic services. Ai-assisted diagnosis, as an "extended item", is included in the same price system and cannot be charged separately. For instance, when a hospital performs a "plain chest CT scan (including AI-assisted diagnosis)", the charging standard remains the same as the original "plain chest CT scan", and the cost of the AI function is absorbed by the hospital itself.
The policy emphasizes that "AI cannot replace physicians' diagnosis", and its role is limited to "assisting in diagnosis or improving efficiency", with clinical decision-making power still in the hands of physicians. Before the quality and efficacy of auxiliary diagnosis are independently evaluated, no separate charging items will be established. The National Healthcare Security Administration pointed out: "The unified arrangement of the extension item of 'Artificial Intelligence-assisted diagnosis' under the main items of radiological examination in the project initiation guidelines is to reflect the functional positioning of artificial intelligence technology in improving quality and efficiency, rather than its role in increasing costs."
Therefore, artificial intelligence-assisted diagnostic products have found themselves in a very awkward situation. They are neither likely to be sold as a separate product to hospitals nor can they profit from the back-end and clinical charges of hospitals. Image artificial intelligence seems to have entered the "free" era, but this is not sustainable. The "last mile" problem of AI medical commercialization seems unsolvable.
The National Healthcare Security Administration supports the wide application of imaging AI in clinical practice and recognizes that AI technology provides a key tool for addressing the imbalance of primary medical resources. However, its commercial implementation needs to strike a balance between "universality" and "sustainability". In the future, policymakers, the industry and medical institutions need to jointly explore innovative models such as tiered pricing, on-demand procurement and service payment, so that AI technology can truly become a "booster" for enhancing the capacity of primary medical care.
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