A regional health center, belonging to group 3 public non-business units, questioned the handling of expenditures arising in 2025 but without payment sources.
According to reports, due to insufficient revenue in 2025, even not enough to cover expenses, the unit incurred some salary-related expenses such as surgery fees, procedure fees, and on-call fees. In addition, there are repair costs and purchases of essential supplies for medical examination and treatment.
These amounts have not yet been paid and are being accounted for on accounts 334 (payment to employees) and 331 (payment to sellers).
In 2026, will the unit be allowed to use revenue from medical examination and treatment activities to pay outstanding debts from 2025?
Regarding this, the Ministry of Health replied: According to current regulations, there is no regulation allowing the use of revenue from medical examination and treatment activities of the following year to pay unpaid amounts of the previous year.
According to Clause 2, Article 28 of Decree 60/2021/ND-CP, multi-functional health centers are allowed to use revenue from medical examination and treatment services and other services, along with state budget funds allocated for activities according to regulations, to pay for the center's operations.
For group 3 public non-business units, the estimation must also be based on the actual performance situation of the current year and the tasks of the planned year.
Clause 2, Article 32 of Decree 60/2021/ND-CP stipulates that group 3 units shall base on the implementation situation of the current year and tasks of the planned year to develop plans on the quantity and volume of public service services and revenue and expenditure estimates, and report to higher management agencies.
Meanwhile, Clause 3, Article 12 of Circular 56/2022/TT-BTC stipulates that for revenue and expenditure estimates for providing non-state budget public service services and other service activities, public service units shall develop their own plans and revenue and expenditure estimates, and then report to higher management agencies for monitoring, inspection and supervision.
Notably, according to Clause 6, Article 13 of Circular 56/2022/TT-BTC, for revenue and expenditure of public service services that do not use the state budget, the higher-level management agency does not assign revenue and expenditure estimates to the unit.
Heads of public service units decide on revenue and expenditure estimates based on plans, regimes, standards, and spending norms prescribed by competent state agencies and internal spending regulations.
Another noteworthy regulation is at point d, clause 2, Article 6 of Decree 347/2025/ND-CP of the Government on administrative procedures in the field of the State Treasury.
Accordingly, for revenue from medical examination and treatment services of public non-business units group 3 and group 4, the State Treasury shall make payments or advances at the request of the unit when the expenditure is in the estimate assigned by competent authorities, and must be within the scope of the unit's account balance at the State Treasury.
The fact that the unit has money in the account from medical examination and treatment revenue does not mean that it can arbitrarily use that money to pay for all remaining expenses from the previous year.
The expenditure must ensure the conditions according to regulations, including requirements for estimates and funding sources.
From the above regulations, it is affirmed that there are no regulations on the use of revenue from medical examination and treatment activities of the following year to pay unpaid amounts of the previous year.
The payment of expenses must be carried out in accordance with regulations on estimates, regimes, standards, spending norms and internal spending regulations of the unit, and at the same time ensure within the scope of revenue from medical examination and treatment of the unit.
