Vietnam Social Insurance has asked authorities in provinces or cities that have applied, or planned to apply, new health fees at more than 80 percent of the ceiling rates to lower them to under that level.
People pay hospital fees at the Lao Cai Province General Hospital
VSI deputy general director Nguyen Minh Thao said its local affiliates in such localities should propose that local authorities move to make their new health fees at hospitals reasonable and affordable.
These local fees are based on the ceiling fee schedule issued by the Ministries of Health and Finance in February. The schedule, which covers 447 health services, said most prices would rise at 2-to-10 times current costs, but some would jump 20 times.
So far, seventeen provinces and cities have applied new fee rates at more than 82 percent of the cap, including Dong Thap and Cao Bang, which represent the highest rate, at 93 percent.
As for check-ups and sickbeds, the two most common services, 12 localities now charge patients fees at more than 86 percent of the ceiling. In particular, Hai Duong has applied new fees on the two services at 100 percent and 99 percent of the caps, respectively.
In Ninh Thuan, Long An, Khanh Hoa, and Dong Thap, the respective fees are 100 percent and 96 percent, 95 and 95 percent, 99 and 96 percent, and 93 and 94 percent of the maximum rates.
Le Van Phuc, head of VSI’s health insurance office, recently told Tuoi Tre that the structures of new health fees at many hospitals are unreasonable, pushing the fees to be paid by patients to an unacceptably high level.
Ly Ngoc Kinh, former head of the Medical Examination and Treatment Department, has also said the Health Ministry has not adjusted its fee table according to each locality’s socio-economic conditions, with different brackets for the rich, middle class, or poor.
Therefore, provinces and cities have been left to set their own rates, up to a limit, which Kinh said was unreasonable and unconvincing.
