Home health insurance, more support for vulnerable patients
Thùy Linh – 13:43, Mon Aug 24, 2026 (GMT+7)
The proposal for health insurance (HI) to pay for home medical examination and treatment is expected to help the elderly, people with disabilities, and chronic patients access healthcare more conveniently
More opportunities to access home healthcare services
The Ministry of Health is seeking opinions on the draft Circular regulating health insurance (HI) payments for family, home, remote medical examination and treatment and remote medical examination and treatment support
Discussing this policy, TTND. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dau Xuan Canh – Chairman of the Vietnam Oriental Medicine Association, former Director of the Vietnam Academy of Traditional Medicine – assessed that this is a policy of humanistic significance, helping people with severe illnesses who cannot go to medical facilities but are still eligible for home treatment to access services more conveniently
According to him, the policy also creates closer coordination between medical facilities and families in monitoring and treating patients. Elderly people, lonely people, people in difficult circumstances and people with diseases who can be treated stably at home will be the groups that benefit clearly
However, experts emphasize that the most important benefit of patients is still to receive effective treatment. Doctors’ visits to homes are only a method of providing services, not all cases of travel restrictions are suitable for home treatment
Patients need to be accurately diagnosed, have a stable treatment plan and be determined to be eligible for home care. In case the disease is unclear, the progression is complicated, or home treatment is not effective, they must be transferred to a medical facility
Sharing about this proposal, Dr. Nguyen Van Thuong – Director of Thanh Nhan Hospital (Hanoi) – said that some countries in the world have now been able to monitor patients’ health. For example, patients wearing some health monitoring tools such as blood pressure rings, pulse rings, breathing rate, temperature… automatically integrated according to personal identification codes into the universal monitoring system. From there, neighborhood doctors and family doctors will give specific advice. Many times people have high blood pressure but do not know…
“I assess that the health sector’s orientation towards this goal is completely feasible and achievable. However, there are 2 issues to be solved, firstly, it is necessary to invest heavily in human resources and resources, and secondly, it is necessary to have stronger digital transformation. As in Taiwan, they have done this. Patients have automatic electrocardiogram devices to early warn of some diseases such as myocardial infarction, personal devices connected to AI processing systems, where people register, the system automatically connects to that system to warn doctors. I expect that gradually we develop grassroots healthcare to follow this direction” – Dr. Thuong said.
Health records and a strict monitoring mechanism are needed
According to BSCKII Tran Thai Son – Deputy Head of the General Planning Department, Bach Mai Hospital, health insurance payment for home medical examination and treatment is a humane policy, especially useful for the elderly, paralyzed people, those who have difficulty moving or cannot go to the hospital due to objective conditions
Home examination services should be considered as a solution in truly necessary cases to ensure continuity in treatment for patients, avoiding the situation of becoming severe and having to be hospitalized for treatment because the more severe the disease, the greater the burden on the health system” – Dr. Son said
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dau Xuan Canh said that the grassroots health level must manage throughout the treatment process and be responsible for professional matters. Medical records, electronic medical records and monitoring data must be fully updated so that the social insurance agency can check and supervise costs and treatment results
If implemented for the right subjects, home medical examination and treatment can reduce hospital stay time, travel costs and care pressure for families, while reducing the burden on medical staff and treatment facilities
The Ministry of Health’s proposal is therefore not simply to add a medical examination and treatment location but to expand the method of providing health insurance services, bringing medical care closer to the elderly, people with disabilities, people with chronic diseases and weak patients who cannot go to the hospital themselves
7 groups expected to be reimbursed for home medical examination costs
According to the proposal of the Ministry of Health, the HI Fund will pay out on-site medical examination and treatment costs when medical examination and treatment facilities send practitioners or medical staff to the patient’s residence to provide services. The implementation location may be the patient’s home, social protection center or other legal residence, expected to be applied to patients with health conditions, medical conditions or limited mobility, making it impossible for them to come to the medical examination and treatment facility.
The seven groups proposed for application include: People with severe and especially severe disabilities; people aged 75 and over with limited mobility; people with mental illnesses who are unable to take care of themselves; people with chronic diseases that limit mobility or paralysis; people in need of palliative care in the late stages of life; some people who are receiving social protection benefits, wounded soldiers, sick soldiers, people with meritorious services living in care facilities; children under 36 months old and elderly people without relatives taking care of them.
Not only examination fees, the draft also proposes that the Health Insurance Fund pay for medicines, medical equipment, supplies and testing services within the scope of benefits. Medical staff can bring equipment to their homes for testing or take specimens at home and then transfer them to medical facilities for analysis
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