On the afternoon of October 25, the Ministry of Health held a workshop on developing a Circular promulgating principles and criteria for developing, updating the list and providing instructions for payment of herbal medicines, traditional medicines, medicines combining active ingredients with herbal medicines, herbal medicines, and traditional medicines covered by health insurance.
According to the Ministry of Health, Vietnam is a country with strengths in traditional medicine. The use of traditional medicine plays an important role in medical facilities: 99.3% of traditional medicine is used in traditional medicine departments and hospitals.
However, in recent times, the proportion of traditional medicine used in the total expenditure structure of medicine has decreased from 7.5% to 4.5%. The reason is partly due to difficulties in bidding and procurement after the COVID-19 pandemic, disruption of supply sources, and competition from modern medicine.
"Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to promote the strengths of traditional medicine by updating the list of traditional medicine drugs more fully, with a convenient health insurance payment mechanism, specific to this field and on the principle of protecting the rights of patients, meeting professional requirements, and balancing the fund. This is also the reason why the Ministry of Health has developed the Circular" - Ms. Tran Thi Trang - Director of the Department of Health Insurance - Ministry of Health said.
“The cost of traditional medicine only accounts for 4.5%, and at most 7.5%, so we will prioritize selecting traditional medicine in the Drug List. We must create conditions for the strengths of Vietnamese traditional medicine to develop,” Ms. Tran Thi Trang emphasized.
The representative of the Ministry of Health said that the principle of establishing criteria for selecting traditional medicine into the list of health insurance drugs is to ensure safe, effective and reasonable use of drugs; meet the treatment needs of health insurance participants, and be suitable to the payment capacity of the health insurance fund.
The criteria for adding traditional medicine are to simultaneously meet the following criteria: Having a valid registration number; the medicine originates from an ancient medicine formula; a traditional medicine formula that has been granted a certificate; a modified ancient medicine formula or a proven medicine formula with clear and safe treatment effects based on published research and evaluation of the safety and effectiveness of the medicine...
According to this draft Circular, the Health Insurance Fund will not pay in the following cases:
- Drugs or batches of drugs that have been suspended from circulation or recalled by competent authorities.
- The cost of drugs has been included in the price of technical services, medical examination, treatment bed days or the total price collected per case;
- The cost of drugs is covered by the state budget or other funding sources.
The representative of the Ministry of Health said that the principle of establishing criteria for selecting traditional medicine into the List of Health Insurance Drugs is to ensure safe, effective and reasonable use of drugs; meet the treatment needs of health insurance participants, and be suitable to the payment capacity of the health insurance fund.
