Patient rights are expanded
The amended and supplemented Law on Health Insurance will bring many benefits and conveniences to health insurance participants:
Update the subjects participating and the responsibility to pay health insurance: Expand and adjust the subjects participating in health insurance, at the same time clearly stipulate the responsibility to pay, the method and the deadline for paying health insurance, ensuring compliance and synchronization with the Law on Social Insurance and related laws.
Regulations on health examination and treatment under health insurance: Establish regulations on initial health examination and treatment registration under health insurance and transfer of patients between health examination and treatment facilities according to technical expertise level, in accordance with the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment in 2023, helping patients access medical services more conveniently.
Health insurance benefits when accessing health care services: Apply a unified health insurance benefit level, regardless of administrative boundaries, maintain a stable benefit rate as per current regulations and expand to some special cases such as rare diseases, serious diseases, allowing patients to access specialized health care facilities without having to transfer.
Expanding the scope of benefits for health insurance card holders: Adding benefits such as treatment of strabismus and refractive errors for people under 18 years old, helping children access necessary medical services.
Payment mechanism for drugs and medical equipment: Supplement the payment mechanism for drugs and medical equipment transferred between medical facilities and the cost of paraclinical services transferred to other facilities in case of shortage, ensuring that patients receive all necessary services.
Regulations on late payment and evasion of health insurance: Supplement specific regulations and handling measures for cases of late payment and evasion of health insurance, ensuring the rights of health insurance participants.
Responsibilities of the Ministry of Health: The Ministry of Health shall review and regularly update treatment regimens, ensure convenience in medical examination and treatment and health insurance payment, and improve the quality of medical services for patients.
Issuing electronic health insurance cards: Supplementing regulations on issuing electronic health insurance cards, creating convenience for people in using and managing health insurance cards.
These new points aim to improve the quality of medical services, expand benefits and create more convenience for health insurance participants.
People with rare and serious diseases... do not need to be transferred.
One of the notable points of the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Health Insurance is that health insurance participants with rare diseases, serious diseases, diseases requiring surgery or using high technology will enjoy 100% of health insurance benefits when examining and treating at basic or specialized medical facilities without needing a referral letter as before.
The specific list of rare diseases, serious diseases and high-tech techniques will be issued by the Minister of Health, serving as the basis for applying this policy.
In addition, the new law also expands benefits for health insurance participants in the following cases:
Emergency care at all medical facilities.
Ethnic minorities and people from poor households living in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions, island communes and island districts when receiving inpatient examination and treatment at specialized medical facilities.
People who receive medical examination and treatment at primary level facilities or inpatient treatment at primary level facilities.
People who receive medical examination and treatment at basic or specialized facilities that before January 1, 2025 were identified as district level.
These changes are intended to make it easier for patients to access high-quality medical services and reduce the financial burden of treating serious illnesses.
