Reported at the meeting, Director of Hanoi Social Security Office - Nguyen Duc Hoa said, currently, the epidemic situation in Hanoi is quite complicated. On July 23, 2021, the City People's Committee issued a Directive on social distancing in the area. The City Social Security Office has been seriously implementing measures to prevent the COVID-19 epidemic; also, well implementing policies on social and health insurance; policies to support workers and businesses according to the Government's Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP.

By the end of July 16, 2021, the City Social Security Office has completed the procedures and notified the units and enterprises of the temporarily calculated amount of money to support the reduction of the payment of the labor accident and occupational disease fund for 12 months (from July 2021 to June 2022) for 87,472 units, equivalent to 1,439,694 employees, and the total amount is more than 643 billion VND. By the end of July 26, 2021, the City Social Security Office has issued a decision to stop paying to the retirement and survivorship fund with 4 units with 17 employees with an amount of more than 290 million dong. The City Social Security Office has confirmed the list for 4,854 employees who have suspended their labor contracts or taken unpaid leave; employees who stopped working as of July 26, 2021.

It is expected that by the end of 2021, the whole city will have about 7,677 units with 55,758 employees eligible to reduce the retirement and survivorship fund with an estimated amount of 83 billion VND; Expenditure on training and maintaining jobs for employees is estimated at 45,358 units with nearly 1.2 million employees.

Regarding medical care covered by health insurance related to the COVID-19 epidemic, the City Social Security has fully and promptly implemented the guiding documents and directions of the VSS and the Ministry of Health on payment of costs of medical care and testing for COVID-19; coordinated with the Department of Health to promptly solve arising problems and ensure the interests of patients. The City Social Security also promotes the application of IT to solve social and health insurance benefits, especially when implementing social distancing, where about 80% of officials and employees started working from home; VssID - Digital Social Security application has 3,522,913 people installing, facilitating health insurance participants to go for medical care.

Illustrative image (internet)

In addition to the achieved results, the Director of the City Social Security Office also said that currently the percentage of people receiving pensions and social insurance benefits via ATM cards transferred from the Police, Military and other provinces to Hanoi is low, only reaching 36.69% while the percentage of people receiving pensions and social insurance benefits issued by the City Social Security Office is 93%. Regarding payment of medical care costs covered by health insurance related to the COVID-19 epidemic, according to the guiding document of the Ministry of Health, for COVID-19 patients with health insurance cards, the cost of COVID-19 treatment is covered by the state budget, and expenses for other diseases are covered by the health insurance fund. However, it is quite difficult to clearly distinguish which costs are used to treat COVID-19 and which costs are used to treat other diseases such as bed fees or preclinical tests without the need to test for COVID-19 such as blood tests, laboratory tests, urine tests, etc.

Regarding the proposal, the Hanoi Social Security Office wants the VSS to propose to the Ministry of Health for more specific guidance on the payment of medical care costs covered by health insurance in addition to the expenses paid by the budget. Guidance on medical care and payment of health insurance for the cases where the health insurance card holders suffer from monthly chronic diseases who are still undergoing treatment at medical facilities but are medically isolated due to COVID-19 related illnesses. To guide the signing of contracts and payment of medical expenses covered by health insurance for field hospitals and medical facilities with additional tasks, establishing departments and centers to treat COVID-19 patients, etc.

At the meeting, leaders of the following units: Department of Social Insurance Implementation; Department of Health Insurance  Implementation; Department of Social Insurance Book and Health Insurance Card; Center for Medical Claim Review; Department of Finance and Accounting, has made assessments on the performance of related tasks in the area of Hanoi City, and provided guidance on some operations.

Speaking at the conclusion of the meeting, Manh emphasized that the Vietnamese social insurance industry always accompanies ministries, branches and localities in the prevention of the COVID-19 epidemic and determines this as a key task. The industry has urgently and drastically intervened in supporting workers and businesses facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 epidemic in accordance with Resolution No. 68/NQ-CP of the Government such as: Establishing a Steering Committee to issue relevant documents; establish a team to inspect and urge the implementation in 19 southern provinces. The coordination of medical treatment covered by health insurance is well done, especially in the epidemic situation.

The General Director acknowledged and evaluated the results achieved by the Hanoi Social Security Office in the 7 months of 2021, in supporting COVID-19-hit workers and businesses. Regarding the difficulties, problems and recommendations of the Hanoi Social Security Office, the General Director directed the related units to immediately study and solve them. The General Director noted: In the epidemic situation, it is necessary to have quick reactions and promptly solve new and arising problems in order to best ensure the interests of participants of social and health insurance.

Specifically, Hanoi Social Security Office needs to have flexible plans in paying social insurance benefits, especially in isolated and blocked areas, which can be via bank accounts or through "COVID-19 teams" such as models of some localities. To expeditiously coordinate and create conditions for the establishment of field hospitals to serve the needs of epidemic prevention and control in the locality. When patients in isolated areas have medical needs, they may go to any medical facility, regardless of the place of initial medical registration, as long as they find it the most convenient. The city social security agency also needs to pay attention and ensure funding for medical facilities to buy drugs and medical supplies to ensure medical care for patients./.