Hanoi (VNA) –Health insurance profiteering is still common in private hospitals and healthclinics, with medicine improperly prescribed and purchased, leading to animbalance of the health care fund, health experts have said.

The statement was made at a recent dialogue on legal policies on healthinsurance between Vietnam Social Insurance and Vietnam Private HospitalsAssociation.

The dialogue was a chance for representatives of private hospitals and healthclinics to highlight difficulties in implementing the amended Law on HealthInsurance.

Deputy General Manager of Vietnam Social Insurance Pham Luong Son said thatsince the amended regulations were implemented two years ago, the number ofhospitals providing health insurance services and patients increased greatly.

Figures from the organisation showed that 365 private hospitals and healthclinics signed contracts to provide health insurance services in 2015, and thisnumber increased to 444 in 2017.

In 2015, the fund paid 2.8 trillion VND (123 million USD) to more than 6.5million insurance card holders. In 2016, the fund paid 6.6 trillion VND (290million USD) to more than 16.6 million cald holders, with this year’snumber expected to rise strongly - 1.58 trillion VND (69 million USD) for 4.2million card holders within the first three months.

However, there were shortcomings in health insurance services at private clinics.

Nguyen Ta Tinh, head of the organisation’s Medicines and Medical Equipment Unitsaid that clinics persisted in selecting, purchasing and using drugs andmedical supplies that were not cost-effective.

Some private hospitals held drug bidding, but the selection of contractorsremained ineffective.

For example, 92 types of drugs sold at Vinmec International Hospital cost morethan at Saint Paul Hospital with total difference value of 2.8 billion VND.

Some facilities prescribed expensive drugs or offered many medical techniquesfor health insurance holders to attract more patients.

Duong Duc Tuan, Director of the Centre for Health Insurance Coverage andMulti-level Payment in the north agreed, saying that some services wereunnecessarily prescribed and the prescriptions were often repeated.

At the dialogue, Vietnam Social Insurance signed a coordination agreement with VietnamPrivate Hospitals Association to solve difficulties and improve theeffectiveness of the implementation of the health insurance regulations.-VNA