Innovations in the implementation of short-term social insurance schemes.

Ms. Ngo Thi Duyen, a worker at Hoang Thi Loan Textile and Garment Joint Stock Company, recently finished her maternity leave. Returning to work filled with the joy of giving birth to a healthy second child, Ms. Duyen was even more delighted when the company's HR department informed her that she would receive her maternity benefits. She expressed surprise that the money arrived sooner than expected, as it took about six months after her first childbirth for her to receive it.

“The officer in charge of benefits explained that the company has recently implemented electronic transactions for processing maternity, sick leave, and convalescence benefits. This has significantly reduced processing times, and employees like me are very pleased to benefit from this convenience,” said Ms. Duyen.

With nearly 1,000 employees, Hoang Thi Loan Textile and Garment Joint Stock Company has employees receiving short-term social insurance benefits almost every month. Mr. Pham Van Quyen, head of the company's Human Resources and Administration Department, affirmed the convenience, time and cost savings, and high accuracy of electronic transactions in processing employee benefits. Mr. Quyen said that in the past, the company has closely coordinated with the provincial Social Insurance agency to implement electronic transactions, bringing many advantages to employees.

According to statistics from the provincial Social Insurance agency, from the end of May 2018 to the beginning of August 2018, Hoang Thi Loan Textile and Garment Joint Stock Company processed short-term social insurance benefits for 82 individuals for illness, maternity, and convalescence through electronic transactions, ensuring speed and accuracy.

Officials from the Social Insurance Department of the province process benefits for workers through electronic transactions. Photo: PA

Along with Hoang Thi Loan Textile and Garment Joint Stock Company, the two other pilot units, Haivina Kim Lien Co., Ltd. and the Provincial Post Office, have received positive feedback on the implementation results.

At Haivina Kim Lien Co., Ltd., in addition to acknowledging the speed and convenience of the electronic transaction system, the responsible staff also highly appreciated it, saying that the system is like a compact data library; with just one click, all information related to the participation in and enjoyment of social insurance benefits for employees is displayed.

The most commendable aspect is the accuracy and transparency in management, because when entering data, even a single incorrect piece of information will immediately trigger an error. The coordination process with the provincial Social Insurance agency is also highly appreciated by businesses for its speed and efficiency. Accordingly, within just a few hours of submitting data, if there are any errors, businesses will receive feedback from the Social Insurance Benefits Department providing specific instructions on how to resolve them; and subsequently, they will receive an email scheduling a date for receiving the results.

Haivina Kim Lien is a company with thousands of employees, the majority of whom are women. Therefore, each month, a large number of people need to process sick leave, maternity leave, and convalescence benefits. In less than three months of implementing electronic transactions, the company has processed short-term benefits for 411 individuals.

Workers at Haivina Kim Lien Co., Ltd. Photo: PA

Similarly, at the Provincial Post Office, the unit's leaders and employees also highly welcome the application of electronic transactions in resolving short-term social insurance benefits. In fact, electronic transactions in general have become a familiar practice for all staff members of the Provincial Post Office due to the nature of their work in the information sector.

According to the provincial Post Office leadership, previously, when processing benefits for employees, responsible officers had to go directly to the provincial Social Insurance office, carrying numerous paper documents to complete administrative procedures. Now, the time and effort have been significantly reduced as they can simply operate from their desks using the software. This progress in administrative reform is also evident in the reduction of paper document storage and the time saved when retrieving information.

For the provincial Social Insurance agency, the implementation of electronic transactions brings many practical benefits. Accordingly, this software has contributed to completing the toolset supporting the verification of maternity and childbirth benefit claims through the Health Insurance Claims system, facilitating inspection, control, and prevention of incorrect declaration of birth dates and fraudulent claims for benefits.

In addition, the processing time for short-term social insurance benefits is much faster than before because officials no longer have to manually edit or copy data. However, the implementation process still has certain limitations. For example, for sick child benefits, verification cannot be performed on the health insurance claims portal because there is no regulation requiring the declaration of the child's health insurance card code; currently, the software only verifies the employee's health insurance card code. Similarly, outpatient treatment cases are not yet properly monitored because the health insurance claims database only shows the start date of leave, not the last treatment date…

Based on the advantages and limitations of the pilot implementation, Mr. Nguyen Quang Quyet – Head of the Social Insurance Benefits Department of the province – stated that the Social Insurance Benefits Department proposes the implementation throughout the province for units that have been and are currently using the e-declaration system, starting from July 10, 2018, for short-term social insurance benefits.

To implement all short-term social insurance schemes through electronic transactions and to strictly control the social insurance fund, the provincial Social Insurance agency also requested the Ministry of Health to direct the Department of Health and medical examination and treatment facilities to fully input medical examination and treatment data recorded on records and documents according to the guidance in Circular 56/2017/TT-BYT into the national health insurance claims portal, using the unified data format of Vietnam Social Insurance.