No increase in medical examination and treatment prices
At Le Van Thinh Hospital (Thu Duc City), there are 700-800 patients seeking medical care every day, accounting for about 25% of the total outpatient visits at the hospital. The normal service examination fee is 150,000 VND, the highest is 200,000 VND/visit if examined by Associate Professors, Doctors, and experts from major hospitals and medical schools in the city.
Doctor Tran Van Khanh, Director of the Hospital, said that the price has not been adjusted up yet because it is necessary to invest in improving service quality first to increase reputation and convenience for patients. “After the Covid-19 pandemic, people still have many difficulties. Examination on demand is voluntary, but we prioritize quality, so we have not calculated the price increase. Maybe in 1-2 years, we will adjust it up by 10%-15%,” Dr. Tran Van Khanh informed.
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People waiting for medical examination and treatment at the Ho Chi Minh City Orthopedic Hospital. Photo taken on the morning of August 23, 2023. Photo: CAO THANG |
Similarly, Dr. Tran Van Song, Deputy Director of People's Hospital 115, said that the unit is still applying the old price, has no policy to increase and will only increase the price of medical examination and treatment after investing in upgrading the appropriate infrastructure. In the context that many departments are still overloaded, the hospital does not increase the number of service beds but still invests in upgrading to both serve patients with conditions and ensure the costs for the hospital's operations and development.
At Saigon General Hospital, Dr. Mai Duc Huy, Deputy Director of the Hospital, said that the unit has a scale of 250 beds. Of which, about 10% of patients receive medical examination and treatment upon request and about 12% of inpatient beds are service beds. The hospital has not yet adjusted the price of medical examination and treatment services.
At Cho Ray Hospital - the final unit of the Ministry of Health in the southern provinces, there are currently about 150 service beds out of a total of more than 3,200 beds, a rate of nearly 5%. Doctor Pham Thanh Viet, Head of the General Planning Department, Cho Ray Hospital, said that the hospital does not have enough space and location to open many service rooms and up to now, the hospital has a policy of limiting service beds because of the large number of patients in difficult circumstances from the provinces coming for medical examination and treatment.
Many service prices have been reduced sharply.
At Viet Duc Hospital, the number of patients using on-demand medical examination and treatment services accounts for 30%-40% of the total number of people receiving medical examination and treatment every day. To facilitate people in choosing services, the price list for on-demand medical examination and treatment is publicly posted on the hospital's website. Most of the hospital's 1,478 on-demand medical examination and treatment services are priced equal to or lower than the maximum price set by the Ministry of Health.
According to Dr. Duong Duc Hung, Director of Viet Duc Hospital, the general price for medical examination and treatment upon request is 500,000 VND/visit, regardless of the level of doctor or specialist examination as before. However, many other services have been significantly reduced, such as the price of injections and intravenous infusions reduced from 100,000 VND to 46,000 VND; the price of ultrasound reduced from 300,000 VND to 196,000 VND, echocardiography from 500,000 VND to 380,000 VND...
In particular, many high-tech services on demand have also been adjusted to reduce prices quite deeply, such as: percutaneous disc herniation treatment under CT or MRI guidance from 13 million VND to nearly 2.4 million VND/session; abdominal CT scan reduced from 5.6 million VND to nearly 2.4 million VND/session; chronic anemia bypass surgery from 43 million VND to nearly 13 million VND; vena cava-pulmonary artery bypass surgery to treat congenital heart disease from 61 million VND to more than 37 million VND/session...
At the Central ENT Hospital, this unit is still applying the price of medical examination and treatment on demand from 250,000-500,000 as before Circular 13. Mr. Pham Tuan Canh, Director of the Central ENT Hospital, said that each day the hospital examines about 800-900 patients, with a peak of nearly 1,000 patients, about 1/3 of which are examined on demand. Therefore, the hospital is continuing to study Circular 13 to implement it appropriately.
According to some experts, the reason why the prices of many on-demand services at some medical facilities have decreased significantly compared to the ceiling or are lower than the ceiling price of Circular 13 is because, when setting prices, hospitals have previously taken into account all the components when performing the service and used the best materials. Along with that, due to the need of patients to choose specialists to perform the service, especially at end-line hospitals and leading hospitals, each hospital has a different price frame for on-demand medical examination and treatment.
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People register for medical examination and treatment services at Thong Nhat Hospital |
Associate Professor, Dr. Luong Ngoc Khue, Director of the Department of Medical Examination and Treatment Management (Ministry of Health), said that in order to have a legal framework for medical examination and treatment activities on demand, to meet the medical examination and treatment needs of the people, the Ministry of Health has issued Circular 13 guiding medical examination and treatment activities on demand in the condition that medical service prices have not been calculated correctly and fully.
However, the Ministry of Health stated that medical facilities are only allowed to reserve no more than 20% of the total number of hospital beds for on-demand medical examination and treatment to avoid the abuse of transferring health insurance patients to on-demand areas. This also ensures the service quality of public hospitals and avoids overcharging patients.
K Hospital denies information that hospital fees are decided by some medical staff
On August 23, in response to a number of video clips circulating on social media about patients having to pay hospital fees at Tan Trieu K Hospital (Hanoi) based on the decisions of some medical staff, a representative of K Hospital spoke to the press.
Mr. Nguyen Ba Tinh, in charge of the Social Work Department of K Hospital, said that the hospital has 3 facilities in Hanoi, implementing hospital fees in accordance with the regulations of the Ministry of Health. At the facilities of K Hospital, there is always a service price list printed right at the reception area of the examination departments, in a convenient location to help patients easily choose medical examination and treatment services.
Therefore, the information that medical staff decide on service prices and fees is completely incorrect. The representative of K Hospital added that after the video clip was posted on social networks, the hospital's leadership held a meeting with related units, requiring all medical staff to ensure proper implementation of the hospital's medical examination and treatment procedures.
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