VietNamNet Bridge – The new policy on hospital fees, under which the prices for 350 services will rise, is still a draft. It will be checked carefully before being implemented, said Health Minister Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.

Charges for 350 health services to increase
Under this draft policy, the charges for around 350 services will increase from 2-2.5 folds on average and some up to 7-10 folds up from 2011 to 2012. The increase will be implemented in three phases at public hospitals. The new policy is said to hit millions of people.

She said that the new policy must be carried out very prudently and if necessary, the Ministry of Health would hire foreign experts to assess the new hospital fees.

The compilation group has collected information from the leading hospitals in Vietnam, including the hospitals of Bach Mai, Viet Duc, Obstetric, Traditional Medicine and Central Pediatric in Hanoi, Cho Ray and People’s Hospital 115 in HCM City to draft the new policy.

However, Pham Luong Son, chief of the Health Insurance Department of the Vietnam Social Insurance Bureau, said that service prices offered by service sellers (hospitals) cannot be objective and fair. Actually, the suggested hospital fees in the draft policy are very high.

However, after many discussions and consultations with related agencies, the fees have been cut down in comparison with the charges in the first draft.

Cam Quyen