Who is covered by health insurance for Covid-19 testing?

Deputy Minister of Health Nguyen Truong Son added that the Ministry of Health has issued Official Dispatch No. 4051 dated July 30 to the Vietnam Social Security (VSS) regarding the payment of Covid-19 testing costs. The Ministry of Health requested the Vietnam Social Security to direct the Social Security of provinces and cities to temporarily pay the costs of Covid-19 testing for people with health insurance cards in the following cases: people who must implement medical isolation measures, forced medical isolation; people infected with Covid-19 who are being examined and treated at medical facilities and cases where medical facilities are assigned to perform testing according to the Ministry of Health's instructions on diagnosis and treatment of acute respiratory infections caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Covid-19 situation in Vietnam on the morning of August 3: One new case in Quang Ngai

Two payment levels

Regarding the payment price, Social Insurance applies the regulations in the appendix issued with Circular No. 13/2019 of the Ministry of Health . Specifically, service No. 1735 for Real-time PCR testing of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites is 734,000 VND/test sample for cases of testing using the Real-time PCR method. Service No. 1736 for rapid testing of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites is 238,000 VND/test sample for cases of rapid testing.

On August 2, responding to Thanh Nien reporters, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City Center for Disease Control (HCDC) said that the Department of Health is meeting with the Ho Chi Minh City Social Insurance to agree on a plan to pay for Covid-19 testing according to regulations. Currently, Covid-19 testing in Ho Chi Minh City is to find out the risks and have epidemic prevention measures. This testing cost is paid by the state budget and is not covered by insurance. Currently, the private sector is not allowed to voluntarily test for Covid-19 with a fee.
As of August 2, 32,070 people who left Da Nang from July 1 to Ho Chi Minh City have declared their health. Of these, 21,260 people have been tested, 4,270 samples have tested negative, 8 samples are positive, the remaining samples are awaiting test results. With a large number of samples at this time, HCDC said it will complete all of them this week at state medical facilities. Duy Tinh

To unify the implementation of payment for Covid-19 testing, Vietnam Social Security has sent an official dispatch to the Social Security of provinces and centrally-run cities, the Social Security of the Ministry of National Defense, and the Social Security of the People's Public Security, requesting coordination with local health insurance medical examination and treatment facilities to promptly assess and pay for testing costs according to the instructions in Official Dispatch No. 4051 of the Ministry of Health.

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First negative test still cannot be subjective

Regarding the timing of testing for accurate results, Dr. Nguyen Trung Cap, Deputy Director of the Central Hospital for Tropical Diseases, noted: "If the test is negative early, please do not be subjective", and further explained: "In fact, if you have not been quarantined for 14 days, you still cannot be completely assured of a negative result. The reason is that the SARS-CoV-2 virus enters the body, silently multiplies to a certain threshold, then spreads to the respiratory tract and causes symptoms".

According to Dr. Cap, the process of the virus silently multiplying is called the "incubation period". During this time, because the virus has not yet spread through the respiratory tract, the tests can still be negative even though the body has the virus. Therefore, these people can still become positive in the following days. The incubation period of most patients is less than 14 days, but there is still a small percentage that can be longer.

“Therefore, if a person travels through an epidemic area or has close contact with a sick person, self-isolation and monitoring for 14 days is the key. Only prioritize testing for people with respiratory symptoms to detect cases for timely treatment,” Dr. Cap noted.

Dr. Cap added: “Testing early when there are no clinical symptoms has very little value. It can even be harmful if people who test negative think they are not sick and are complacent, breaking the quarantine rules. They can then become a source of infection for the community if they test positive in the following days.”

According to Dr. Cap's recommendation, people who have traveled through areas with Covid-19 epidemics or have been in close contact with people suspected of having the disease do not necessarily need to be tested immediately. First, they need to notify the local health department to be put on the monitoring list and be instructed to self-isolate for 14 days. During the 14-day quarantine period, they need to notify the health department again at any time they have symptoms of suspected Covid-19 such as fever, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, etc. for early testing. Other cases will be tested on the 13th - 14th day to confirm accurately, helping each person protect their own health and avoid spreading to the community.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/ai-duoc-bao-hiem-y-te-tra-chi-phi-xet-nghiem-covid-19-185980513.htm