From August 15, on-demand medical examination and treatment services will be subject to a new price frame.

According to Circular 13 issued by the Ministry of Health on July 1, the above prices for medical examination and treatment upon request will officially apply from August 15. This Circular is expected to eliminate the situation where each hospital has its own price for medical examination and treatment upon request, as has been the case for many years. This is also the first time that a separate legal document on medical examination and treatment upon request has been issued by the Ministry of Health.

Accordingly, the price range for medical examination services upon request at special-class hospitals (such as Bach Mai, Viet Duc, 108, Hue Central, Cho Ray, Thai Nguyen), class 1 hospitals (such as Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, Xanh Pon, Thanh Nhan (Hanoi), Tu Du, Ho Chi Minh City...) is at least 100,000 VND/visit and at most 500,000 VND/visit. For other medical examination and treatment facilities (such as Dong Da General Hospital, Vietnam - Cuba (Hanoi), class II hospitals...), the minimum price is 30,500 VND and at most 300,000 VND/visit.

In the case of inviting domestic and foreign personnel to examine and provide health consultation, the unit is allowed to collect fees according to the agreed price between the medical examination and treatment facility and the service user.

At large hospitals, the price of medical examination upon request is implemented in many different "levels". The highest price is usually applied to the option of examining professors, associate professors, heads of departments, deputy heads of departments (many places apply the price of 500,000 VND/visit), decreasing when choosing to examine PhD, specialist II, master, specialist I and regular doctors...

Hospital bed price on requestMinimum 180,000 VND/bed day, maximum 4 million VND/bed day for 1 bed/room type.

According to this circular, there are 1,937 types of technical services and testing on demand with specified maximum and minimum prices.

According to this price range, robotic endoscopic surgery to treat chest diseases has the highest maximum price, more than 134 million VND, and a minimum of 91 million VND.

The prices of some other expensive medical services include: 4D color Doppler ultrasound of the heart not exceeding 826,000 VND/time; 32-slice CT scan with contrast agent not exceeding 1,584,000 VND/time; 262-slice CT scan or more with contrast agent not exceeding 5,250,000 VND/time; magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with contrast agent not exceeding 3,701,000 VND/time;...

The minimum price of technical services in the list of medical examination and treatment on demand according to Circular 13/2023 is equivalent to or slightly higher by a few hundred thousand compared to the price range prescribed in Circular 13 (amending Circular 39/2018) and 14 (amending Circular 37/2018) issued by the Ministry of Health in 2019.

Currently, people go to medical facilities for examination and treatment in 3 forms, including: (1) Examination under health insurance (payment according to regulations in Circular 13/2019 of the Ministry of Health), (2) examination without health insurance but not voluntarily registering to use medical examination and treatment services on demand (payment according to Circular 14/2019 of the Ministry of Health), (3) examination on demand.

Of which, the rate of patients choosing to be examined on demand according to the Ministry of Health is only under 10%, at central and provincial hospitals, and almost none at district level. The Ministry of Health affirms that this first price list for medical examination and treatment services on demand is only applicable to subject number 3, and does not affect subjects number 1 and 2.

According to Vietnamnet