Proposal to open medical examination and treatment nationwide, what does the Minister of Health say?

The Ministry of Health recently responded to voters' opinions sent before the 6th session of the 15th National Assembly regarding the issue of transferring medical examination and treatment facilities under health insurance.

Transferring medical examination and treatment under health insurance causes difficulties for people

Accordingly, voters in Tien Giang province continue to reflect on the fact that transferring medical examination and treatment under health insurance at frontline hospitals causes difficulties for the people.

Especially for incurable diseases that district and provincial levels do not have enough facilities and specialized medicine such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke...

From there, voters proposed that the Government open up medical examination and treatment nationwide and soon apply health insurance medical examination and treatment by integrating citizen identification to suit the current situation.

Responding to this content, regarding the nationwide medical examination and treatment referral, Minister of Health Dao Hong Lan said that the procedure for transferring medical examination and treatment under health insurance has been regulated in Circular 14/2014 of the Ministry of Health regulating the transfer between medical examination and treatment facilities.

Accordingly, referrals can only be made when the medical facility does not ensure diagnosis and treatment conditions, and must be referred from the commune, district, provincial, and central levels.

According to the Law on Health Insurance, from January 1, 2016, health insurance participants have been provided with district-level health insurance examination and treatment, meaning that people can be examined and treated at any district-level medical facility within the province and at district-level hospitals nationwide.

From January 1, 2021, health insurance participants will be connected to provincial health facilities nationwide, meaning they can receive inpatient treatment at provincial health facilities nationwide.

Enjoy 40% discount on inpatient treatment at central medical facilities.

The expansion of health insurance coverage to the central level needs to be studied and considered to avoid overloading the central level, increase health insurance coverage at the grassroots level and ensure balance of the health insurance fund.

Over 40.6 million searches for health insurance card information using citizen identification

Regarding the application of health insurance examination and treatment by integrating citizen identification cards, the Ministry of Health has directed the health departments of provinces and cities and medical examination and treatment facilities to deploy plans and resources to receive and examine and treat patients with chip-embedded citizen identification cards with integrated health insurance card codes or through the national electronic identification application of the Ministry of Public Security.

According to a report by the Vietnam Social Security, as of October 16, 2023, nearly 100% of medical examination and treatment facilities participating in health insurance examination and treatment nationwide have implemented health insurance examination and treatment using chip-embedded citizen identification cards.

Specifically, over 40.6 million health insurance card information searches using chip-embedded citizen identification cards have been successful in serving health insurance medical examination and treatment procedures.

In the coming time, the Ministry of Health will continue to issue documents to urge medical examination and treatment facilities nationwide to step up the implementation of receiving patients for medical examination and treatment under health insurance using chip-embedded citizen identification cards or via the VNeID application of the Ministry of Public Security.

In addition, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public Security, and the Vietnam Social Security have piloted the application of biometric authentication technology in receiving patients for medical examination and treatment at a number of hospitals in Hanoi and Quang Binh province.

However, biometric authentication in health insurance examination and treatment is a new issue that needs to be learned from the pilot implementation and the process completed for widespread implementation.

The Ministry of Health will summarize and draw experience from the pilot implementation and develop and guide widespread implementation in 2024.