Will reduce medical examination fees, increase hospital bed fees
Draft circular amending prices of some health insurance medical examination and treatment services, medical examination price is now 20,000-35,000 VND, ultrasound is reduced by nearly 1.5 million.
In the draft Circular amending and supplementing the prices of some health insurance examination and treatment services, there are about 40 services with reduced prices, including examination fees, bed days, paraclinical services, etc.
The examination fee at special and first-class hospitals is currently 39,000 VND and is proposed to be reduced to 35,000 VND. The examination fee at commune health stations and fourth-class hospitals will also be reduced from 29,000 VND to 20,000 VND. The price at second-class hospitals will be 29,000 VND instead of 35,000 VND.
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| Medical examination at Vinh City General Hospital. Photo courtesy |
Regarding hospital bed prices, it is expected to increase in special and first-class hospitals and decrease slightly in third and fourth-class hospitals. For example, the price of a bed for intensive care, organ transplant, stem cell transplant... at a special-class hospital will increase from 677,100 VND to 751,000 VND; at a first-class hospital it will also increase to 710,000 VND (an increase of nearly 80,000 VND). The price of a bed for emergency resuscitation and anti-poisoning at a fourth-class hospital will decrease from 226,000 VND to 215,000 VND.
The price of X-ray and CT scan services has also decreased. In particular, the service of interventional ultrasound - catheter placement to drain abscesses has decreased sharply from more than 2 million to less than 600,000 VND. Tonsillectomy surgery with electric knife has decreased from nearly 3.7 million to 1.6 million VND. Laparoscopic surgery to suture a perforated stomach has decreased from more than 4 million to nearly 2.9 million VND...
Mr. Nguyen Nam Lien - Director of Financial Planning Department, Ministry of Health said: The Ministry of Health, Finance together with Vietnam Social Security reviewed and adjusted the prices of some medical services. The reason is that the price of medical services depends on input costs such as electricity, water, materials, chemicals...; currently some costs have increased, some have decreased due to bidding. Therefore, the prices established in 2012 and 2015 are no longer suitable.
In addition, the number of people visiting district hospitals for examination and treatment was low in 2012-2015. However, in 2016, the regulation on district-level access came into effect, along with investment in facilities, equipment, and technology transfer to lower levels; hospitals began to attract more patients to come for examination and treatment. This increased the examination capacity and bed usage; therefore, it is necessary to calculate the reduction of prices for some services.
The Ministry of Health will consider which services are at risk of being abused and tighten prices, such as X-rays, endoscopy, etc. The principle is that the prices of services that are encouraged for medical facilities to use will be adjusted up so that hospitals can provide them to people. On the contrary, the prices of services that are not encouraged to be provided much will be reduced, said Mr. Nam Lien.
The circular is expected to be issued in May and implemented in July.
Also according to Mr. Nam Lien, in the long term, the current 18,000 medical services will be reduced to about 3,000-4,000 service groups; at the same time, calculating the roadmap to include enough salary, direct costs, management costs, and depreciation into the price structure. Currently, the basic salary has increased from 1,150 million to 1,3 million VND; however, the salary calculated into the price is still at the old salary level.