The statement was made by General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh while he chaired an online meeting of the sector on the morning of April 6.

Manh ordered the sector to further innovate the content, forms and methods of dissemination of social and health insurance in accordance with the characteristics of each region and population group.

Moreover, the sector should strengthen random inspections to promptly deal with violations of the regulations and laws on social and health insurance, he said.

The sector has to deploy a range of solutions to increase participants in social and health insurance; flexibly operate the VssID application to fit with the COVID-19 pandemic; and collect current social insurance debts, he said.

It is required to ensure the interests of participants and effectively implement policies to support employees and employers, who have faced difficulties due to the pandemic, he added.

General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Nguyen The Manh told the insurance sector to complete the assigned tasks.

Manh also said that the pandemic has caused a lot of difficulties and damage to the country’s socio-economic development and many sectors, including the insurance sector.

At this time, pandemic prevention is the first priority, but it is also necessary to prepare scenarios and solutions to be ready to accelerate and make a breakthrough to complete the assigned tasks after the pandemic is over, he said.

Manh requested all units under the sector to be always ready to implement all scenarios.

It needs to assign specific goals to each unit and individual to fulfill the assigned tasks, he said.

Relating to health insurance, Deputy General Director of Viet Nam Social Security Pham Luong Son told the Department of Health Insurance Implementation and Centre for Medical Claim Review to drastically implement the direction of the sector’s leaders.

It is necessary to soon agree on the process of the health insurance assessment; issuing documents to guide Viet Nam Social Security’s branches in provinces and cities to implement; and consult on temporary guidance documents on the payment of medical expenses by health insurance, Son said.

Also at the conference, the Board of Commissioner Office’s Deputy Chair Nguyen Van Cuong asked branches to promote communication and share experiences and good models to adopt in other provinces and cities so that all branches will effectively implement the assigned tasks.

The Board of Commissioner Office’s Deputy Chair Nguyen Van Cuong delivers his speech at the meeting.

Achievements

Chief of Viet Nam Social Security Administration Office Chu Manh Sinh said that by the end of March, Viet Nam has over 16.4 million people participating in social insurance, including over 15.1 million people participating in compulsory social insurance.

The country has more than 85.34 million people participating in health insurance, reaching a coverage rate of 86.1 per cent of the population, he said.

In the first three months of this year, the number of participants in compulsory social insurance, voluntary social insurance and unemployment insurance increased compared to the same period last year, with increases of 1.47 per cent, 10.77 per cent and 1.95 per cent, respectively.

Overview of the online meeting

The total accumulated collection of social and health insurance premiums by the end of March reached VND93.4 trillion (US$4.08 billion), an increase of 3.9 per cent over the same period last year.

The total debt of social and health insurance is about VND23.9 trillion (over $1 billion), equaling 5.6 per cent of the receivables.

As of March 25, the sector has authenticated about 39 million pieces of demographic information for the national population database.

At the same time, it has provided and shared over 9.3 million records of social and health insurance information for the national population database.

It also has successfully authenticated over 30.4 million identification cards.

There were 35,813 searches of health insurance card information by identification cards from 2,856 medical facilities nationwide.

Delegates attend the meeting at the Vietnam Social Security headquarters.

Do Ngoc Tho, head of the Department of Social Insurance Implementation, said the sector has arranged human resources and funds to reform administrative procedures, apply information and technology to deal with problems to ensure benefits for employees infected with COVID-19.

It has also encouraged employees to receive social insurance benefits through their personal bank accounts, he said.

Le Van Phuc, head of the Department of Health Insurance Implementation, said the sector has requested the Ministry of Health to issue a guiding document to determine the total payment amount of medical expenses by health insurance as well as directing the branches to allocate funds for medical facilities in provinces and cities to pay medical expenses covered by health insurance.