Why is it difficult to use the hospital medical card as a "one-card card"?

Why is it difficult to use the hospital medical card as a "one-card card"?
Nowadays, to go to the hospital, you need to have a hospital treatment card. If you don't have one or forget to bring it, you need to apply for a medical card. As a result, almost every household has a few or even dozens of cards, which brings great inconvenience and unnecessary expenses to ordinary people.

In recent years, there has been a strong demand from citizens for a unified medical card. Currently, there are two hospitals in Changsha, and hospitals in Liaoning, Yunnan, Hubei, and other regions are also promoting resident medical cards, which combine the functions of a medical card and a bank card, and can be used nationwide. However, the number of hospitals currently using the Resident One-Card Medical Card is not large.

"For hospitals, there may be some difficulties in implementing them." Xiangya Third Hospital has already implemented resident medical cards. The head of the hospital's information center said that each hospital's information system is different, so the cards cannot be used interchangeably. To unify the medical card, hardware must be replaced and software upgraded. This requires a corresponding financial investment, which has somewhat created resistance to the implementation of the resident health card.

Previously, media reported that some hospitals were reluctant to implement universal medical cards, not only due to system and funding issues but also because the cards contained information such as patient examinations, diagnoses, prescriptions, and drug prices, and even economic interests. Some hospitals were reluctant to make this information public.

In response, the head of the Information Center at Xiangya Third Hospital explained that in the resident health card they promote, their hospital discloses objective information about medication and test results, but considering that medical records contain hospital resources and expert expertise, not all information is shared. "Each hospital has its own situation and may have its own concerns."
From this perspective, hospitals still have a long way to go before implementing the hospital medical card all-in-one card. Various conflicts of interest and safety considerations hinder the implementation of this beneficial policy.