Labor and Healthcare Policies Effective from Mid-January 2019

1. Recruitment of Officials and Public Employees Regardless of Diplomas and Training Schools

This new content is supplemented in Decree 161/2018/ND-CP regarding amendments and supplements regulating the recruitment of officials and public employees, promotion of officials, upgrading of public employee ranks, and implementation of contract policies for certain jobs in state administrative agencies, and public service providers.

To be specific, Decree 161 adds conditions for registering for official recruitment (in Article 4 of Decree 24/2010/ND-CP) and public employee recruitment (in Article 4 of Decree 29/2012/ND-CP) as follows:

- Conditions for registering to take the official recruitment exam: to be implemented according to Clause 1, Article 36 of the Law on Officials. The agency using officials will determine other conditions according to the requirements of the position being recruited at Point g, Clause 1, Article 36 of the Law on Officials but must not contradict legal regulations and must not discriminate based on training type, diplomas, certificates, public and non-public schools, etc.;

- Conditions for registering to take the public employee recruitment exam: the agency or unit authorized to recruit public employees can add other conditions according to the job position requirements specified at Point g, Clause 1, Article 22 of the Law on Public Employees but must not contradict legal regulations and must not discriminate based on training type, diplomas, certificates, public and non-public schools.

Decree 161/2018/ND-CP is effective from January 15, 2019.

1. Increase in the Price of Health Insurance Medical Services

Circular 39/2018/TT-BYT regulates the uniform price of health insurance medical services across hospitals of the same class nationwide and provides guidance on applying the price and paying for medical service costs in certain cases.

It implements an increase in health insurance medical service prices from December 15, 2018, at medical facilities (including direct costs and salaries), as follows:

- Special class and class I hospitals: 37,000 VND/visit (currently 33,100 VND);- Class II hospitals: 33,000 VND/visit (currently 29,600 VND);- Class III hospitals: 29,000 VND/visit (currently 26,200 VND);- Class IV hospitals and commune health stations: 26,000 VND/visit (currently 23,300 VND).

See more about the hospital bed service prices in the Appendix attached to Circular 39/2018/TT-BYT effective from January 15, 2019.

1. Method for Calculating Inpatient Days to Pay for Hospital Beds

The Ministry of Health issued Circular 37/2018/TT-BYT regulating the maximum price framework for medical services not covered by the health insurance fund at state medical facilities and guidance on the cost of medical services in certain cases.

Notably is the method for determining inpatient days to pay for hospital beds using the following formula:

- Inpatient days = Discharge date – Admission date + 1. Applied in the following cases:

- Severely ill patients are receiving inpatient treatment; their condition has not improved, worsened, or died, but the family insists on taking them home or transferring them to a higher-level hospital;- Patients who have been treated at a higher-level hospital past the emergency phase but still need continued inpatient treatment and are transferred to a lower-level hospital or another medical facility;

- Inpatient days = Discharge date – Admission date. Applied in other cases.

- In cases where the patient is admitted and discharged on the same day (or admitted the previous day, discharged the next day) and the treatment time is over 4 hours but less than 24 hours, it is counted as 1 inpatient day.

- If the patient is admitted directly to the emergency department without passing through the examination department, with emergency treatment time of 4 hours or less (including cases of discharge, admission, transfer, or death), the medical examination fee, medication fee, medical supplies, and technical services are covered but the intensive care bed fee is not covered.

Circular 37/2018/TT-BYT is effective from January 15, 2019.

1. Fee for Appraising Certification of Food Safety Conditions

The Ministry of Health issued Circular 117/2018/TT-BTC amending regulations on the fee schedule in food safety issued with Circular 279/2016/TT-BTC.

From January 15, 2019, the appraisal fee for practice conditions and business in the field of food safety is applied as follows:

- Appraisal of food production facilities (excluding health protective food production facilities): 500,000 VND/occasion/facility;- For other production facilities that are granted a certificate of food safety conditions: 2,500,000 VND/occasion/facility.

According to the new regulation, if the fee-collecting organization is an enterprise, the collected fee is the revenue of the fee-collecting organization, and the organization is allowed to keep 100% of the collected fees to cover the cost of fee collection. However, they must declare and pay value-added tax and corporate income tax following legal regulations.

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