Patients do not receive CT scans or X-rays to reduce costs, but the hospital does not get paid. Why?

Software for storing and transmitting medical images, storing and transmitting CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, MRIs... is being applied in many hospitals across the country, helping to reduce hundreds of billions/year, but hospitals are complaining, why?

With PACS software, all images are stored and transmitted, hospitals do not have to buy and print films like before - Illustration photo

According to a hospital director in Hanoi , for the past few years this hospital has reduced the cost of buying various types of film by about 8 billion VND/year, instead investing in buying equipment and renting PACS software, which is software for storing and transmitting medical images, costing only 1.2 billion VND/year.

Patients who have had all kinds of X-rays done do not have to receive the film but can view the results immediately on their phones or computers. Not to mention the long-term benefit of reducing environmental pollution because plastic medical films can last for hundreds of years without self-destructing.

However, the difficulty is that the hospital invests and actively digitizes but the insurance does not fully cover the cost of the scan, the printing part (with X-ray film about 40,000 VND, CT scan about 500,000 VND...) is no longer covered.

Both sides benefit, but each hospital loses billions per year even though the service is still provided.

Explaining this, Mr. Tran Quy Tuong, former Director of the Department of Information Technology ( Ministry of Health ), currently Chairman of the Medical Informatics Association, said that currently, only 22 hospitals nationwide have participated in the pilot project since 2018 and are covered for the cost of imaging and storage using PACS, instead of imaging and printing films as before.

Currently, many hospitals have used PACS and have not been paid for this cost, resulting in huge losses due to investment but no fee collection. The bottleneck is that the Ministry of Health has not yet established the price for imaging and transmission using PACS, although there have been many meetings to discuss it.

While using PACS has many benefits: reducing film purchasing costs, environmental benefits, patients do not have to hold film to avoid loss...

"There are opinions suggesting that the cost of taking pictures and transmitting them using PACS is equivalent to the cost of taking pictures. In Korea, the cost of using PACS is 20% higher than taking pictures due to the high cost of renting software and doctors' salaries. However, in Vietnam, because the cost of renting software is cheap, many opinions suggest that it should only be 50% of the cost of taking pictures and printing pictures," Mr. Tuong said.

However, no matter how much cheaper it is, it is necessary to have a price for the hospital to implement it soon, thereby reducing the damage to the hospital. According to Mr. Tuong, because of investment but not collecting fees, although implementing PACS has many benefits, many hospitals do not dare to do it, so this form has not been widely replicated.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nguoi-benh-khong-nhan-phim-ct-x-quang-giam-chi-phi-nhung-benh-vien-khong-duoc-tra-tien-vi-sao-20250113102431554.htm