Yang Gang: The most important factor in resolving asset risk efficiency

In recent years, with the continuous development of medical technology, the hospital's medical equipment has also been constantly updated, and the hospital needs financial support behind every investment in fixed assets, but the source of funds will be different. In addition to meeting the equipment needs of the hospital, Siemens Finance Leasing also provides financing services to customers and customizes funding solutions for hospitals. Recently, China Hospital Dean Network conducted an exclusive interview with Yang Gang, vice president of Siemens Finance Leasing Co., Ltd., on issues related to financial leasing.

"Chinese Hospital Dean": There is a saying that understands financial leasing as a partial payment. Do you think this statement is accurate?

Yang Gang: Hospitals use financial leasing to purchase equipment. Repayments are definitely a kind of staged form. However, in fact, financial leasing is not so simple, it will bring many benefits to the hospital's resource allocation, capital operation, asset risk management.

Like we bought a house, after purchasing it with cash, there was no liquidity in hand. Investment in some assets in hospitals does not require cash. For example, CT, I firmly believe that hospitals should not use cash to buy CT, but should choose the method of financial leasing. Hospitals should invest cash in the salary of medical personnel, staff training and education, IT system improvement, infrastructure, etc., because these investments will not directly bring extra revenue to the hospital. CT is a very effective device. It directly brings extra revenue to the hospital. So hospitals can use CT's own cash flow to repay CT investment. This is a very significant benefit of providing financial leasing solutions to hospitals. This kind of scheme has very little influence on the cash flow of the hospital and can even be ignored.

From a longer-term perspective, customers' demand for resource allocation and efficiency will increase. Our financial leasing services can help hospitals to share the risk of managing assets.

“China Hospital Dean”: What are the risks of equipment assets that hospitals face?

Yang Gang: The first type of risk is equipment renewal. For example, a hospital invests in a device. The technical update of the device is 3 years. After 3 years of use, the hospital found a better machine but could not throw away the old equipment. If you buy a new machine, the operating rate is likely to be reduced by half. What should the hospital do? The second risk is the upgrade of equipment technology, such as updating some software. How do hospitals control risk at this time? The third risk is the maintenance of equipment. After purchasing the equipment, the maintenance of the equipment by the hospital is an additional expenditure. How should the hospital choose the maintenance service?

Our equipment leasing company is very good at dealing with the above risks for hospitals. For the first type of risk, we can provide new machines for hospitals in the form of financial leasing. If the state liberalizes the circulation of second-hand medical equipment, we can help hospitals transfer old machines to other hospitals. For the latter two risks, we can package the upgrade of the equipment and additional investment in the warranty service into the hospital's installment repayment plan. In this way, the hospital is very at ease and greatly reduces the risk.

"China Hospital Dean": If you use Siemens money to buy Siemens equipment, the price will not be more expensive?

Yang Gang: No. From the perspective of repayment, the value of this machine is 3 million yuan, and we do not want it to sell 5 million yuan, because this may increase the hospital's burden and increase the risk of repayment. We need a fair market price.

Siemens is really standing in the perspective of the hospital to do things, consistent with the idea of ​​the dean: the equipment can not be too expensive, the service can not be too expensive, the equipment quality is better, and no problem is guaranteed. All equipment procurement processes are conducted by the hospital for normal bidding, which is the legal significance of financial leasing. When Siemens bids for a hospital equipment procurement project, we will add a financial lease service option to the hospital, which will voluntarily decide whether it is needed or not. We all hope that the equipment purchase price is reasonable, which is very clear.

"Chinese Hospital Dean": Does Siemens Financial Leasing Company only serve Siemens equipment?

Yang Gang: In short, we will serve both Siemens and third-party equipment, but we will have more support for Siemens equipment. We do financial leasing to help hospitals provide better overall support to meet the hospital's full range of funding needs.

"Chinese Hospital Dean": What kind of threshold do you set for the hospital you serve?

Yang Gang: Just like the bank approval project, we will make a risk assessment for the hospital. Our approval rate is very high, above 98%. We have not set a certain threshold. As long as the hospital is operating normally, the hospital's investment in equipment is reasonable or slightly higher, and there are no problems. Because the hospital needs to develop, its equipment purchase is basically rational investment, and we will support it. Of course, the hospital's investment should also be reasonable, and it should not be blindly expanded because of external financing lease services. Just like buying a house, you must not buy a house worth five million yuan because someone is offering a mortgage loan, because in fact only twenty thousand yuan is enough.

We have very clear judgments on the risk assessment of Chinese hospitals. Our views differ from that of banks. Banks may be more concerned with hospital asset collateral, which is a traditional way of borrowing. However, we only aim at equipment. CT is CT, and magnetic resonance is magnetic resonance. We value Siemens equipment itself for the income generation of the hospital's future cash flow. Focusing on business is better than paying attention to theoretical risks. We believe that Siemens equipment, believes that its operating rate and reliability, will help hospitals achieve successful investment.

"Chinese Hospital Dean": What kind of advice do you have for the financial management of Chinese medical institutions?

Yang Gang: I think the most important thing is to increase efficiency. Internationally, no matter the high-welfare state or the low-welfare state, the hospital will always face an entangled problem, namely, the problem of capital management: all hospitals will be invested by the country, the cost will be very high, the government can not afford it, and if the hospital takes commercial operation In the model, investors will have to chase profit, which is difficult to guarantee the quality of medical services.

The services provided by the medical and health industry have their own particularities. In the end, it is good for the state to build public hospitals for money, or for private hospitals, and the developed countries are also arguing about it. The only solution currently is to pursue efficiency, including capital efficiency, technical efficiency, and operational efficiency. For medical institutions, the best management method is: public institutions, but to adopt a commercialized operation mode, the hospital must pursue the management efficiency as those stormy business enterprises on the market.