Proposal for public hospitals to proactively set hospital fees upon request

SGGP 08/26/2023 06:10

On August 25, at the workshop on improving hospital management capacity and the role of hospital directors in the new situation organized by the Hanoi Department of Health, representatives of many hospitals clearly stated the difficulties and obstacles in implementing autonomy and bidding and purchasing medical equipment and medicines.

Referring to Circular 13/2023/TT-BYT regulating the price framework and pricing method for medical examinations on demand provided by public hospitals (effective from August 15), Director of Hanoi Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital Nguyen Duy Anh said that the Ministry of Health's regulations on hospital fees on demand are correct, but the issuance of a fixed price framework as it is now is unreasonable.

“For example, a patient “orders” a surgeon, choosing a surgery time of 3-4 am and according to the instructions of Circular 13, the service price is nearly 7 million VND/case, but after deducting various expenses, there is only about 500,000 VND left for the entire surgical team. In this case, no doctor will accept to perform surgery at the above price at 3 am.

Thus, Circular 13 is fixing hospital fees as required while the prices of items such as medical supplies and medicines are always changing according to the market," Mr. Nguyen Duy Anh cited and proposed that for autonomous public hospitals, the Ministry of Health should let the units build their own medical service prices to ensure that they follow the principles of calculating correctly and fully reasonable costs, with savings for reinvestment and are suitable for people's payment.

Autonomous hospitals set their own prices, publish their hospital fees every year and are responsible for themselves. The Ministry of Health is responsible for annual post-audits.

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