VietNamNet Bridge – Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam on Monday sent an urgent document asking concerned organisations to inspect the use of the health insurance fund.

Patients register for their health examination with health insurance cards. – VNA/VNS Photo

Recently, multiple media channels reported several cases where profits were being sought from the health insurance fund in some provinces and cities, due to which the fund faced the risk of overspending.

Deputy Prime Minister Dam asked the Ministry of Health, the Viet Nam Social Insurance and the Viet Nam Medical Association to check the fund and penalise those taking advantage of the fund to ensure legal rights and profits of people buying health insurance.

Dam asked the Viet Nam Medical Association to propose measures for effective use of the medical insurance fund.

Statistics of the Viet Nam Social Insurance showed that in the first half of this year, the total value of the health insurance fund was VND28.2 trillion (US$1.3 billion).

Actual expenses for health examination and treatment were valued at VND30.3 trillion ($1.4 billion), an increase of 40 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The overspending was a result of the increase in the number of people buying health insurance by 12 per cent, the application of equal health service prices based on the Ministry of Health’s Circular 37 and some people with health insurance cards taking undue advantage of the health insurance fund.

Deputy Director of the Viet Nam Social Insurance Pham Luong Son said many people went to hospitals for health examinations with health insurance cards several times a day.

In July, one person underwent health examination 27 times in one month. Another person went in for a health examination to 2-3 different medical stations in one morning and obtained a prescription of some VND200,000 ($8.8) from each medical station.

If the person resold the medicines to drugstores at cheaper prices, the profits he/she took were quite significant, Son said.

Source: VNS