Health Ministry Introduces New Quality Criteria for Private Hospitals

The Vietnamese Ministry of Health has issued a set of criteria to rate private hospitals and healthcare clinics across Vietnam. The move came after the Vietnam Social Security decided that in 2018, private hospitals and healthcare clinics that want to sign contracts with the agency to examine people with health insurance cards will have to show a legal document proving their quality under the criteria. Under the new regulation, medical agencies could exactly calculate the rate of health insurance fees it had to cover for a patient treated at a private hospital or healthcare clinic instead of a public hospital or healthcare clinic. A health insurance cardholder has to register one public hospital or health clinic to receive treatment before they start to use the card. Additionally, private hospitals and healthcare clinics need to be classified at levels equal to public hospitals and healthcare clinics so that the insurance agencies can calculate the fees they will cover, depending on the quality of private hospitals and healthcare clinics. Vietnam currently has about 170 private hospitals, more than 30,000 private healthcare clinics, and more than 76 million health insurance cardholders. (VietnamPlus Jan 12, Bao Nhan Dao Jan 11, Bao Chinh Phu Jan 10)