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In 2024, the Ministry of Health will collaborate with the Police Department for Administrative Management of Social Order (C06, Ministry of Public Security) and Viet Nam Social Security have been researching and integrating these two types of documents on the VneID and VssID apps. This is a jointed effort of the digital transformation in health insurance sector, looking to completely removal of paper-based hospital referals and re-examination appointments. When these documents are integrated into the VneID and VssID applications, patients only need to show the electronic version for health insurance referral and re-examination appointments (QR codes are included).

The implementation of electronic documents for health insurance referral and re-examination appointments will shorten the processing time, providing convenience for patients and healthcare facilities when transfering or re-examining. It also helps reducing fraudulent and forged activities in the transfer process and assists Social Security in the assessment and payment of health insurance.

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As per regulations, a transfer document summarizes information about a patient, including his/her medical condition, tests, clinical procedures, medications, and the reason for the transfer. The document plays a crucial role in providing timely and comprehensive information to healthcare facilities, as well as offering information about the rights and benefits of health insurance participants for reimbursement of health insurance costs. However, there have been some challenges in the implementation process, such as administrative burdens in the initial health insurance registration and inconveniences for patients in the referral process. Therefore, there is a need to improve the organizational mechanism for implementation.

In addition, the Decree 75 amends and supplements several articles of Decree 146 detailing regulations and instructions on measures to implement several articles of the Health Insurance Law that has just taken effect from December 3, 2023, also has provisions for regulations related to re-examination appointments, including solutions to reduce administrative procedures and inconvenience for patients. Specifically, according to the old regulations, patients are scheduled to be re-examined at a certain time or any time before the appointment date if there is any unusual sign or symptom. The re-examination appointment was only valid for a single use within a 10-day period. If the patient does not go for re-examination within 10 days, the appointment will expire. The regulations require a patient to apply for a referral letter if he/she wants to enjoy health insurance in the appropriate hospital level. According to the new regulations, if the patient cannot return within 10 days for re-examination, they can contact the medical facility in advance to request another appointment. This way, the patient will not have to re-apply for an appointment and wait.