Social insurance industry 'scores points' thanks to administrative reform

(Baonghean) - Friendly service attitude, accelerated procedure processing, application of interconnected electronic transaction system... are the innovations of Nghe An Social Insurance sector in recent times. Therefore, the provincial Social Insurance sector is increasingly "scoring points" in the people's evaluation.

At 7:30 every day, the “one-stop” reception room of Vinh City Social Insurance is bustling. The staff working in reception, consulting, and supporting the settlement of administrative procedures always start the new day with a busy schedule. As one of the first people to complete the required procedures, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh (Tien Loc hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Vinh city) is very excited.

She said: “Today I came to do some health insurance paperwork. Honestly, before going, I heard this person and that person say that I would have to wait a long time and the procedures were complicated, but in reality, when I arrived, the social insurance officers guided me and the process was very quick.”

In the morning we were present at the Vinh City Social Insurance Office, in addition to the case of Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Binh, many people came to report the loss of their health insurance cards and apply for new ones. The procedures were guided quickly, and the issuance of new cards for people only took 5-15 minutes.

For more complicated requests, the staff on duty at the “one-stop” office will contact specialized departments and offices by phone to request support and guide people through procedures to reduce waiting and travel time.

Staff of the Vinh City Social Insurance “one-stop shop” department handle health insurance procedures for people. Photo: Phuoc Anh

For businesses in the city, recently, positive innovations of the Social Insurance industry have also brought about many remarkable results, especially the application of the electronic file receiving system.

Mr. Dang Ngoc Thang - Director of Duc Thang Construction Investment Company Limited said that the company has 30 employees. Before deploying the software to receive electronic records, the company's accountant had to go to the city's Social Security office every month to pay insurance for employees. Not to mention if there were any errors or mistakes, they had to go back and forth many times. When the Social Security industry deployed the software to receive electronic records, they only needed to sit at the company to enter information according to the form. The software with automatic functions helps reduce errors when declaring and businesses can monitor the progress of their company's records.

Mr. Dang Ngoc Thang affirmed: “Businesses like us welcome the reform in administrative procedures of the insurance industry. Applying information technology not only helps reduce time, save costs and labor, but also demonstrates the professionalism and responsibility of the social insurance industry towards employees.”

Mr. Tran Van Huyen - Director of Vinh City Social Insurance affirmed: "Implementing the direction of the provincial Social Insurance, Vinh City Social Insurance has made efforts to promote the application of information technology, considering this a key step to improve the quality of work. Through the electronic file receiving software system, not only businesses can monitor the file processing process but also Social Insurance officers can easily control and urge progress. In the coming time, we will continue to support the installation of software and deploy digital signatures at newly established business units."

Administrative reform and application of information technology have brought a "new breeze" to Vinh City Social Insurance in particular and the provincial Social Insurance sector in general. At the request of the Prime Minister, starting from 2015, the Social Insurance sector identified it as a "pivotal" time for administrative procedure reform. Based on reviewing each procedure, detailing each component of the dossier and criteria on forms and declarations, Vietnam Social Insurance has issued decisions to reduce documents, procedures, and implementation processes in all professional fields from collecting and issuing social insurance books and health insurance cards to resolving and paying social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance regimes.

In Nghe An, implementing synchronous solutions under the direction of Vietnam Social Security, along with dynamism and innovation according to the specific situation in the locality, Nghe An Social Security has also resolutely created a strong shift in discipline, administrative discipline, raising the awareness of serving the people, organizations and businesses of civil servants and employees in the entire system.

Provincial Social Insurance Union members give free porridge to poor patients.

Currently, Nghe An Social Insurance has publicly posted 32/32 administrative procedures, records, and forms related to social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance at the "one-stop" department of the provincial Social Insurance agency and its affiliated units. In addition, the electronic information page of Nghe An Social Insurance (http://bhxhnghean.gov.vn) regularly updates information and disseminates new policies, helping people and employers easily access to learn about social insurance, health insurance, and unemployment insurance policies and regimes. In the first 6 months of 2017, the provincial Social Insurance continued to receive and return results of administrative procedures through the open postal service.At the same time, the provincial Social Insurance strengthens and promotes the implementation of electronic document delivery to create maximum convenience and reduce costs for employers and individuals.

However, administrative reform is still facing some difficulties: Administrative procedures in the field of social insurance and health insurance are very complicated and frequently change; some young cadres have not had access to documents of each historical period; application software sometimes does not meet requirements and tasks.

In addition, there is still a situation where a small number of officers receiving documents and handling administrative procedures are still mechanical and passive; in some units, the professional and technical quality of officers is uneven, and they still need to continue to be trained and updated with knowledge to meet the requirements of the new era.

Ms. Le Thi Dung - Deputy Director of the Provincial Social Insurance affirmed: "In the coming time, the Provincial Social Insurance will continue to improve the provincial Social Insurance apparatus and the Social Insurance of districts; continue to seriously implement the administrative procedures issued by the Social Insurance sector; direct units to research and propose solutions to reduce the number of hours to handle administrative procedures compared to the requirements, striving to complete the target assigned by the Government and Vietnam Social Insurance to reduce the number of social insurance transaction hours to 49 hours. At the same time, we are determined to build the image of civil servants, public employees, and social insurance workers as "friendly and responsible" and launch emulation movements associated with the implementation of assigned tasks".

Phuoc Anh