Traditional medicines are used to treat high blood pressure in elderly people. (Photo: thuocbac.edu.vn) Hanoi (VNA) - Various shortcomings still exist in traditional medicine interms of healthcare and paying health insurance fees.
Thiswas revealed at a meeting organised by the Ministry of Health and the VietnamSocial Insurance Agency on June 5 in Hanoi.
Sometraditional medicine hospitals do not have doctors specialised in diagnosticimaging, leading to less patients coming to the hospitals as they cannotbenefit from the services, according to Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy head of theministry’s Traditional Medicine Management Department.
Anothershortcoming is a lack of detailed instructions for insurance agencies on how topay health insurance fees for patients diagnosed with chronic diseases, who arethe typical patients visiting traditional medicine hospitals.
Normally,patients with chronic diseases need to be treated for a long time.
Thus,the lack of instructions affects patients and heath insurance agencies as theyare confused on how to pay health insurance fees for these patients.
Atpresent, many medical universities declined to train traditional-medicinedoctors in modern medicine, Tuan said.
"Thismeans traditional medicine hospitals fail to meet standards required by thehealth ministry to become primary healthcare facilities where health insurancecard holders can register for examination and treatment," he said.
PhamLuong Son, deputy general director of the Vietnam Social Insurance Agencypointed out defects in implementing and paying health insurance fees forpatients treated with traditional medicines.
Sometraditional medicine hospitals were found to keep patients for longer thannecessary, he said.
Sonalso said the price of ba kich (Indian Mulberry) – a kind of traditionalmedicine, differed between localities. For instance, the price was 338,500 VND (15USD) per kilo in Quang Nam province, 630,000 VND (28 USD) in Thanh Hoa provinceand 730,000 VND (32 USD) in Dien Bien province.
Heasked for the difference to be clarified.
Hegave an example that an insurance agency branch in Binh Dinh province revoked 1billion VND (44,000 USD) after finding a difference between the real price oftraditional medicine with the price a local hospital quoted to the agency in2016.
Howto fix
Tuansaid inconsistencies in policies were behind the shortcomings.
Heasked the ministry and the insurance agency to sit down together and issue aconsistent policy to fix the shortcomings, Tuan said.
Sonasked the ministry to assess examining and treating patients by traditionalmedicine at national level.
Healso advised the ministry to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional medicinein treating patients with health insurance cards at hospitals.
Theministry was asked to publicise the average bid winning prices for each kind oftraditional medicine, he added.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien urged reachinga consensus between the two agencies to deal with the shortcomings soon.-VNA
Thiswas revealed at a meeting organised by the Ministry of Health and the VietnamSocial Insurance Agency on June 5 in Hanoi.
Sometraditional medicine hospitals do not have doctors specialised in diagnosticimaging, leading to less patients coming to the hospitals as they cannotbenefit from the services, according to Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy head of theministry’s Traditional Medicine Management Department.
Anothershortcoming is a lack of detailed instructions for insurance agencies on how topay health insurance fees for patients diagnosed with chronic diseases, who arethe typical patients visiting traditional medicine hospitals.
Normally,patients with chronic diseases need to be treated for a long time.
Thus,the lack of instructions affects patients and heath insurance agencies as theyare confused on how to pay health insurance fees for these patients.
Atpresent, many medical universities declined to train traditional-medicinedoctors in modern medicine, Tuan said.
"Thismeans traditional medicine hospitals fail to meet standards required by thehealth ministry to become primary healthcare facilities where health insurancecard holders can register for examination and treatment," he said.
PhamLuong Son, deputy general director of the Vietnam Social Insurance Agencypointed out defects in implementing and paying health insurance fees forpatients treated with traditional medicines.
Sometraditional medicine hospitals were found to keep patients for longer thannecessary, he said.
Sonalso said the price of ba kich (Indian Mulberry) – a kind of traditionalmedicine, differed between localities. For instance, the price was 338,500 VND (15USD) per kilo in Quang Nam province, 630,000 VND (28 USD) in Thanh Hoa provinceand 730,000 VND (32 USD) in Dien Bien province.
Heasked for the difference to be clarified.
Hegave an example that an insurance agency branch in Binh Dinh province revoked 1billion VND (44,000 USD) after finding a difference between the real price oftraditional medicine with the price a local hospital quoted to the agency in2016.
Howto fix
Tuansaid inconsistencies in policies were behind the shortcomings.
Heasked the ministry and the insurance agency to sit down together and issue aconsistent policy to fix the shortcomings, Tuan said.
Sonasked the ministry to assess examining and treating patients by traditionalmedicine at national level.
Healso advised the ministry to evaluate the effectiveness of traditional medicinein treating patients with health insurance cards at hospitals.
Theministry was asked to publicise the average bid winning prices for each kind oftraditional medicine, he added.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Viet Tien urged reachinga consensus between the two agencies to deal with the shortcomings soon.-VNA
VNA
