It has been recently announced that the fees of around 1,800 medical services at public hospitals would be revised up this month. 

To any patient, soaring hospital fees are unwelcome news but such a fee hike may disappoint many, especially those who have had to spend hours waiting for their turns to have their health examined but get substandard services and cursory care at a number of public hospitals. 

Though explanations for the hospital fee hike starting this month by competent agencies sound rational, people expect the quality of hospital services to improve correspondingly.

As informed by the Vietnam Social Insurance Agency late last month, hospital fees will increase up to sevenfold beginning November 15 when the circular on medical examination and treatment fees takes effect. In particular, bed charges will also increase 2-7 times and medical checkup fees will pick up 2-4 times, depending on the standards of hospitals.

Pham Luong Son, head of the agency’s department for the medical insurance policy, said hospital fees are adjusted as expenses previously subsidized by the State, basic salaries as well as various allowances for health workers are all now factored into the prices of around 1,800 services covered by medical insurance at public hospitals.

Besides, the service fee adjustment is necessary to reform the financial mechanism and to serve as a basic foundation for improving the service quality at public hospitals and ensuring fair, consistent services at all medical clinics, he added.

The service quality at public hospitals is said not to have improved as expected in the past time though the ministry said it has been drastically implementing many consistent solutions to enhance the service quality, with a focus on easing hospital overload and improving facilities, introducing quality standards, reforming administrative procedures and improving the attitudes of health workers.

A recent survey conducted by Tuoi Tre newspaper showed the majority of patients in Vietnam only feel secure when being diagnosed or treated at big hospitals and they do not mind difficulties concerning far distances, high costs and long time of waiting. In addition, surveyed patients believe doctors and health workers at high-grade hospitals are better trained and more skilled.

Therefore, with the new way of calculating the service fees, the ministry expects to see hospitals racing to increase their quality and attract customers. And with the coming fee hike which is meant to help increase the service quality, many question whether the fee adjustment could help address existing problems of the healthcare sector.

The legal base for the hospital fee rise, according to Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, includes the amended law on health insurance, which requires the ministries of finance and health to issue a joint circular on providing the same service fees at hospitals of the same level nationwide, and a resolution on including all price constituents in the service fees.

In other words, the State will stop direct subsidies for hospitals and instead pay for poor patients via health insurance.

On the “Citizens Ask, Minister Answers” program aired on Sunday, Minister Tien said the hospital service fees comprise seven major elements with direct costs like medicine, consumable materials, electricity, waste treatment, repair and maintenance, salaries, allowances, asset depreciation and research and training costs. However, the current fees have covered only three out of the seven elements.

As explained by the minister, poor patients will benefit a lot from the fee adjustment. It is because the service fees did not include all price constituents in the past and patients had to pay for constituents which were not included. But now, under the amended health insurance law, the State will cover 100% of insurance for poor patients and 70% for near-poor patients. Besides, when all price constituents are included, hospitals will have enough funding to cover costs and buy medical equipment.

“When public hospitals are more autonomous in terms of service fees, there will be healthy competitions among them. I think this cannot be achieved overnight but the quality of healthcare services will be better to satisfy customers,” Tien said.

With the new hospital fees to be imposed this month, it is imperative that patients must benefit more from the increasing fees by receiving much better healthcare services in the coming time.

SGT