# healthcare regulation

How a Chinese City Ended Up with More Than Twenty Psychiatric Hospitals — and Why That Matters

A cluster of more than twenty psychiatric hospitals in parts of Hubei has prompted allegations that some facilities operate as profit-driven long-stay institutions, admitting people for low upfront fees and billing per bed-day while presenting routine chores as therapeutic rehabilitation. Provincial authorities have launched an investigation into hospitals in Xiangyang and Yichang, highlighting broader problems with incentives, oversight and community mental-health provision in China.