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Accordingly, following the direction of the National Steering Committee for COVID-19 Prevention and Control on capacity building in COVID-19 test performance, the Ministry of Health (MOH) requests VSS to direct the social security authorities of provinces and cities to temporarily pay for COVID-19 tests as follows:

Payment for costs related COVID-19 test are applied to health insurance card holders in cases where patients are quarantine required or forced, and those infected with COVID-19 who are under treatment at medical facilities and cases chosen by the facilities to be tested under the guidance of the MOH on diagnosis and treatment of acute respiratory infections caused by the nCoV.

The official letter also states, on the applicable price specified in the annex issued together with Circular No. 13/2019/TT-BYT dated July 5, 2019 of the MOH amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Circular No. 39/2018/TT-BYT dated November 30th, 2018 of the MOH unifying prices of medical examination and treatment services covered by medical insurance among hospitals of the same class across the country and guidelines for applying prices and payment for medical services in certain cases. Specifically, Service No. 1735 of tests for bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites by Real-time PCR costs VND 734,000 per sample for Real-time PCR tests. Service No. 1736 of quick tests for bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites costs VND 238,000 per sample for quick testing.

Concerning this issue, on July 30th, VSS issued Official Letter No. 2418/BHXH-CSYT submitted to the social security agencies of provinces and centrally-run cities, the social security agency of the Ministry of National Defence, the social security agency of the People's Public Security proposing to coordinate with local health insurance facilities in the locality for timely inspection and payment of testing costs according to the contents guided in Official Letter 4051 of the Ministry of Health.

At the same time, it is requested that the provincial social security agencies comply with the contents guided in Official Letter No. 2146/BYT-BH dated April 17, 2020 and Official Letter No. 2276/BYT-BH dated April 24, 2020 of the MOH on COVID-19-related payment of medical service costs of health insurance.