The overspending of the health insurance fund and measures to prevent abuse of health insurance were the main theme of a teleconference held by the Government e-portal on October 12.

According to Pham Luong Son, deputy general director of the Vietnam Social Insurance (VSI), the health insurance fund in the first six month totalled 28.22 trillion VND (1.23 billion USD) but the total spending reached 30.37 trillion VND (1.36 billion USD), resulting in an overspending of 2.15 trillion VND.

Photo for illustration

The overspending for the entire year is estimated at 5 trillion VND.

Experts said the situation is partly attributable to the abuse of health insurance by both medical facilities and patients.

The VSI deputy general director said many patients visited different hospitals for checkups and medicines, then sold the drugs they received to others. Meanwhile, some hospitals faked patients’ records or requested patients to do unnecessary tests in order to get paid from the insurance fund.

Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam asked the Ministry of Health, the VSI and the Vietnam Medical Association to inspect the use of the fund to punish wrongdoings.

The VSI is sending inspection teams to localities with big deficits, and accelerating the application of information technology to better control insurance payment for medical care services.

Source: VNA