The Hanoi People’s Committee has asked the local People’s Council to approve higher fees for 819 health services that are expected to be applied at all state-owned hospitals in the capital from August 1.

>> HCMC’s new health fees to be 80% of ceiling rates>> New hospital health fees unreasonable: insurance agency The new fees, which are twice as high as the current fees on average, are calculated based on Circular 04/2012 jointly issued by the Ministries of Finance and Health, which sets out a new fee schedule for health services nationwide, the Committee said.  These higher fees are aimed at increasing the financial source for use in improving the infrastructure of hospitals, purchasing more advanced medical equipment and strengthening training so as to enhance the quality of medical examination and treatment.      The schedule provides ceiling fees for health services, on the basis of which health departments in provinces and cities will design a list of health service fees for their own use. Hanoi authorities proposed that the capital’s new health fees be 70 percent of the ministry’s ceilings from August 2013, and 100 percent from 2016. While all other localities have applied their own fees, only Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have yet to do the same, said Nguyen Nam Lien, deputy head of the Health Ministry’s Planning and Finance Department. In order to ease burden of health examination and treatment cots on the public, the Ministry of Health has required that Hanoi and HCMC not apply their own fees at the same time, Lien said. Accordingly, after Hanoi applies their new fees in August, HCMC will apply theirs in the fourth quarter of this year, Lien added.

Last year HCMC health authorities said that new health service fees at public hospitals in the city will be at least 80 percent of the ministry's maximum rates.