Patients waiting to get medicine at Phu Nhuan Hospital on the afternoon of April 11 - Photo: TU TRUNG
In response to feedback from readers of Ngan Ha, Mr. Tran Quang Vinh said "it's the same in Da Nang " and suggested that Vietnam Social Security (VSS) should thoroughly inform hospitals across the country when examining patients.
Many patients were refused health insurance examination for the second time.
"I took my family member to the doctor and had the same experience. My family member had a herniated disc in 6 vertebrae and had difficulty walking. He had a diabetes check-up at 1:00 PM and finished at 1:40 PM. He asked to go down to the musculoskeletal check-up but was refused. He was forced to take medicine and come back the next day," said reader ThacNoi.
Reader Nguyen Hoang also shared: "I had a headache, so I went to the doctor. The doctor told me to go home and monitor. When I couldn't take it anymore, I went back to the hospital (in the morning). That afternoon, my head felt like it was going to explode. But when I went to the doctor, he said a second visit that day was not possible. I had to wait until the next day."
"In March 2024, I went to see a doctor with my health insurance card at a large hospital in Ho Chi Minh City and was refused twice, forcing me to go the next day. If I wanted to see many different specialists in the same day, I had to beg the first doctor to transfer me.
But not all doctors are willing to transfer to another department because they are busy and do not have time to use the computer to transfer to another department. If the patient does not want to bother the doctor of another department, he has to go to the same market 2-3-4 times. That is the law, but if the "upper" wants something, the "lower" has to accept it," reader Benz said.
"Not only at Phu Nhuan District Hospital, I went to the district hospital on the outskirts, the hospital near the city center, all had the same problem. I printed the prescription, got the medicine, paid that day, if I want to see a doctor with health insurance, I have to wait until the next day, and if I see a doctor the second time on the same day, it's a service examination," said reader DeanLe.
Many other readers said that whether it is the same disease or two different diseases, when the patient requests to be examined a second time, many hospitals refuse. To be examined, the patient must return on another day. This makes the patient lose the effort of traveling, tired, and sicker.
Living far away, having to wait a long time, so I took the opportunity to see 2-3 patients.
Reader Thanh Thanh added another story about the weather: "It's hot, I'm sick and tired, but I keep asking questions like this, but in the end I still don't get examined, and sometimes my illness gets worse."
From his own experience, reader Le Nguyen Kha shared that going to see a doctor with health insurance is very difficult, and because it is far away, people try to see many patients in a day: "No one wants to make up many illnesses to get medicine... Hospitals and health insurance need to review these cases."
Reader Bach Chau proposed a solution: "In my opinion, each hospital needs to have a place where staff who are familiar with the regulations can explain questions and provide guidance to patients. We must consider patients as "gods" to serve them better and better."
Reader Nhan commented: "I think every 6 months, the City Social Insurance should send a document reminding hospitals participating in health insurance about the regulations. If you work every day and still don't understand the regulations like this, it's really incomprehensible.
The hospital should choose knowledgeable and well-versed staff to answer these questions. Answering like that is too painful and unfair to the patients!"
"Who can predict how the disease will progress?", a reader commented.
Hospitals "make things difficult" for patients because they fear health insurance won't pay?
From the hospital's perspective, a reader analyzed: "Everyone blames the hospital and the medical industry. Do you know that health insurance requires doctors not to do this and must do that?
The amount of money that patients receive from health insurance right after medical examination and treatment does not mean that health insurance will pay the hospital on behalf of the patient. There are hospitals that only collect from health insurance at the end of the year, and they only advance 3/4 of the amount. That means health insurance - social insurance owes the hospital 1/4 of the medical examination and treatment costs that the hospital used to serve the people, as a guarantee.
The patient finished the examination and left, but then the health insurance looked up the patient's medical record and said that this service was paid for, that service was not paid for, and the bill was issued. So the money had already been paid for the patient, and the hospital could not call the patient back to pay the balance.
But that's not all, the hospital leadership fined the department for letting that happen. The department blamed the medical staff for letting that happen, so they dug into their own pockets to pay....".
Reader Chien added: "If you work in a hospital, you will encounter many cases of taking advantage of health insurance by having multiple check-ups and going to multiple places. The rule is to have multiple check-ups a day, but you cannot have the same specialist examined before."
Immediately, May objected: "If you say it like that, it's more like a mistake than a miss? Patients who take advantage of others are different from patients who come for real check-ups. Patients who take advantage of others have been examined many times until they're familiar with their faces. And you should know how many years it's been since the patient's health insurance card was used to seeing a doctor for the first time!"
Reader Thang said: "That's absurd. If you pay, you should be paid the same regardless of the number of visits, and two visits a day is not considered a lot. People who take advantage of health insurance are just isolated cases, but such treatment affects everyone."
"That is the insurance regulation, if we want it to be easy for patients, the insurance must be flexible," said reader Accdemo.
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