The Vietnam Social Security (VSS) jumped 18 places to the second position in the Vietnam ICT Index 2017, indicating the agency’s readiness for applying information and communications technology in ministries, ministry-level agencies and Government offices which provide public services. With its efforts, the VSS now has an information technology (IT) system able to manage its operations from the central to local level, thus helping control health insurance and social insurance funds and increasing service quality.

“Technology incubator”

As Hanoi leads the nation in the number of people participating in social insurance and health insurance, the VSS considers the capital an ideal place to conduct the research and application of IT software. At the Hanoi Social Security Office, many initiatives have been born and a lot of software has been completed, contributing to the success of the social insurance sector.

Pioneer unit

Le Van Long from the Hanoi Social Security Office remembers that in 2012, the Hanoi Social Security Office was a pioneer in the sector in implementing the “one-stop-shop” software, while upgrading its website to an e-portal that helps enterprises and individuals look up and keep a close watch on administrative procedure processing. These moves have produced a positive change in the settlement of social insurance and health insurance documents. The rate of documents handled slowly fell from nearly 20 percent to below 3 percent. The moves have also made the process of tackling social insurance and health insurance policies more transparent, and helped improve the service attitude of insurance personnel.

Secretary of the Hanoi Party Committee Hoang Trung Hai and Vice Minister, VSS Director General Nguyen Thi Minh visit the Hanoi Social Security Office

(Sorce: Viet Nam Social Security) 

Along with the application of the “single window” software, the Hanoi Social Security Office upgraded its IT system, providing every district and township with equipment to implement the “single window” mechanism. The office has also connected with other offices and sectors to better serve the public, such as linking with the Post Office to receive and return administrative procedure results, connecting with the police to upgrade residents’ changes and manage social insurance and health insurance participants, and with the municipal People’s Committee to provide birth certificates, permanent residence registration and health insurance cards for children aged under six.

According to Long, at first, the information connection with the Post Office to receive and return administrative results was ineffective, as people still had to do a lot of paperwork. Hence, the HSI worked with the Post Office to apply information technology in receiving and returning administrative procedure results, which helps employers declare, receive and return results on the Post Office’s website.

Long said that changes are small, but this move has helped employers more conveniently send requests related to insurance procedures to the HSI, increasing the number of documents received and sent by the office. In the first half of 2017, the office received and sent 81,878 documents through the Post Office.

Entrusted with piloting tasks

The Hanoi Social Security Office have been assigned to pilot numerous new software and tools of the sector over the past years. Taking the information system for health insurance eligibility verification - a breakthrough of the sector, in August 2016, the agency piloted the system and discovered and addressed the software’s shortcoming             

After the trial period, all local health care institutions are now connected with the system. Their health care service data are updated immediately after patients are discharged from hospitals. The system is now installed nationwide, facilitating the supervision, inspection and management of the health insurance fund.

After that, in October 2016, the Hanoi Social Security Office was selected to pilot software to manage the collection and issuance of social insurance books, health insurance cards and its funds.  The website-based software, with collective and connected data, helps manage the information of each participant, in terms of participation period in social insurance and health insurance, and unemployment insurance, issuance of social insurance books and health insurance cards.

“We had to check and complete the software during the trial period. The software has been deployed nationwide since January 2017,” Long said.

Also, in July 2017, the agency was selected to run on trial the social insurance data collection tool, to help the sector manage data collectively. As a result, the tool has helped speed up social and health insurance payment.

Continuous efforts

The successful pilot projects prove that the Hanoi Social Security Office has become an “incubator” of software for the sector, Long said, underlining the round-the-clock efforts made by staff of the municipal agency to fulfill the tasks.

Numerous challenges faced the agency in implementing the new software, especially with its old computers and inexperienced staff, Long said, affirming that the determination of the agency’s leaders and the consensus among its staff helped to complete the tasks.

International Cooperation Department