Support for Addiction Treatment Costs with Alternative Medication

Circular stipulating the management and use of state budget resources to ensure and support health examination costs and treatment costs for opioid addiction with substitute medication, excluding specific-purpose support from organizations or individuals both domestically and abroad, or any support where the donor or the authorized representative of the donor and the Ministry of Finance have made agreements on content and expenditure levels.

The circular provides guidance, stating that the budget for supporting health examination costs and addiction treatment costs at any given administrative level should be ensured and allocated within the estimates of the agencies and units assigned tasks according to the current budget decentralization.

Accordingly, funds should be allocated within the budget estimates for social security expenditures for treatment facilities managed by the labor, war invalids, and social affairs sector; within the budget estimates for national defense and security expenditures for treatment facilities managed by the police sector; and within the budget estimates for healthcare expenditures for treatment facilities managed by the healthcare sector and other sectors.

The circular clearly specifies that the entire cost of health examinations and addiction treatment, according to the professional guidelines issued by the Minister of Health and the service prices for health examinations and treatments, as well as the addiction treatment service prices as determined by the competent authority for state health examination and treatment facilities, and state addiction treatment facilities (referred to as health examination and addiction treatment costs), should be ensured for addicts voluntarily participating in opioid addiction treatment with substitute medication in compulsory rehabilitation centers, prisons, detention centers, compulsory education institutions, and reformatory schools.

It supports a minimum of 95% of the health examination and addiction treatment costs for the following groups: war invalids; people affected by chemical toxins with a labor capacity decrease of 81% or more; the poor; lonely elderly without support; orphans; severely and especially severely disabled individuals.

In cases where support exceeds the minimum level mentioned above, the circular guides that for ministries, ministerial-level agencies, and agencies under the Government of Vietnam, the Minister, the head of the ministerial-level agency, and agencies under the Government of Vietnam, within the scope of the allocated estimates and considering the actual number of voluntary participants in addiction treatment at the managed facilities, should decide on specific support levels higher than the minimum to suit implementation.

For localities, the People's Council at the provincial level, based on the local budget balancing capabilities and the actual number of voluntary participants in addiction treatment at facilities under local management, should decide on specific support levels higher than the minimum to suit implementation.

According to the circular, the state budget will no longer support the aforementioned groups if their treatment is terminated or if they receive support from other funding sources for the same expenditure.

Source: Financial Magazine

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