Vietnam spends nearly 30,000 billion VND on testing fees for health insurance treatment

(Dan Tri) - According to statistics from the Ministry of Health, the cost of testing and paraclinical examination last year in Vietnam accounted for more than 19% of the total cost of medical examination and treatment under health insurance, equivalent to nearly 30,000 billion VND.

On September 29, in Ho Chi Minh City, a conference was held to summarize the project "Strengthening the capacity of the medical laboratory quality management system for the period 2016-2025" and to implement the connection of test results, organized by the Ministry of Health .

The problem of effective use of test results

Dr. Ha Anh Duc, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health ), said that currently, medical testing is playing an increasingly important role in the entire health care process.

In practice, testing quality management is not only an inevitable requirement but also a task of the health sector to meet the needs of development. Therefore, this work is always given top priority by the Ministry of Health.

According to Mr. Duc, the development of modern medicine based on evidence and individualization will increase the need for wider paraclinical techniques to meet diagnosis and treatment, so costs also tend to increase.

Dr. Ha Anh Duc, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management, spoke at the conference (Photo: Organizing Committee).

In Vietnam, in 2024, costs for testing and paraclinical services (CLS) will account for more than 19% of total health insurance (HI) examination and treatment costs, equivalent to nearly VND 30,000 billion/year (not including co-payment costs and on-demand CLS services).

Therefore, the problem is to effectively manage and use CLS test results to optimize efficiency and maximize cost savings.

The leaders of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment analyzed that strict quality management to move towards interconnection and reuse of medical test results brings extremely important meaning and great benefits.

For patients, this helps reduce medical examination and treatment costs, save time and effort, reduce inconvenience and fatigue (especially important for the elderly, seriously ill people or people who have to travel long distances), and reduce hospital overload.

For physicians, it helps improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment. Physicians can easily access their entire test history (via electronic health records), thereby making more accurate diagnoses and continuously monitoring treatment effectiveness.

In addition, the above activities also help save costs for health insurance funds.

Vacuum blood collection tubes are a medical innovation in clinical testing procedures, helping to save time and testing costs for patients (Photo: Hoang Le).

With the above meaning, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 316/QD-TTg dated February 27, 2016 approving the Project to enhance the capacity of the medical testing quality management system for the period 2016-2025.

This project aims to improve the quality of medical testing, ensure accurate, timely, standardized test results, and serve as a basis for interconnection and recognition of test results between medical facilities, while integrating into the regional and international test quality control network.

Reuse 2% of tests, save at least 600 billion VND

To achieve the above major goal, the Ministry of Health has recently implemented many outstanding tasks and solutions.

These include: building and supplementing the legal framework and testing list for connection and quality control; implementing criteria for assessing the quality level of medical laboratories; organizing training and standardization for assessors and experts; training nearly 30,000 officials nationwide on implementing testing quality management...

All over 3,000 laboratories nationwide have self-assessed annually and improved their quality according to the criteria of the Ministry of Health. Of these, 500 have been standardized, evaluated, certified and have their test results made public.

Based on the standardization of testing quality, according to the report, many hospitals nationwide have connected and reused test results at a high rate, thereby contributing to saving costs for patients.

Also according to Mr. Ha Anh Duc, to promote the connection of medical examination and treatment results (including CLS tests), the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management has advised on the issuance of a common code list for nearly 100,000 specialized terms and techniques, serving the application of advanced electronic medical records.

Of these, there are 2,964 common category codes for testing techniques, facilitating the connection of results when applying electronic medical records.

The Ministry of Health's leaders requested that medical facilities continue to improve the quality of their laboratories (Illustration: HL).

“According to estimates, if we reuse just 2% of paraclinical tests, we can save at least 600 billion VND/year, as well as bring many other benefits to patients and society in general,” Mr. Duc analyzed.

The leaders of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management suggested that the Departments of Health should continue to direct the implementation of work to improve the quality of testing laboratories, inspect, evaluate, and publicize the quality levels of all testing laboratories under their management authority, and must meet the standards prescribed by the Ministry of Health.

Medical examination and treatment facilities continue to follow the guidance of the Ministry of Health to improve the quality of laboratories, apply common codes that integrate techniques and terminology with electronic medical records to connect with other facilities for use, meet professional needs and reduce costs.

Laboratory calibration centers need to continue to promote their role in supporting medical examination and treatment facilities in improving the quality of testing and ensuring the calibration of testing; It is necessary to fully implement external control programs and inter-laboratory comparisons for techniques being deployed at facilities.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/suc-khoe/viet-nam-ton-gan-30000-ty-dong-phi-xet-nghiem-cho-kham-chua-benh-bao-hiem-20250929134410821.htm