On January 9, 2023, the National Assembly promulgated the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15 ("Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023") replacing the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 40/2009/QH12, amending and supplementing a number of articles under Law 21/2017/QH14 ("Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2009"). The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 introduces several new mechanisms to improve the service quality of medical examination and treatment establishments and enhance accessibility to medical examination and treatment ("MET") services.
Here are outstanding contents in the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023:
A. New regulations on MET establishments and investment in the MET sector
1. Supplementing preferential policies according to the policy of socialization in MET
a. Encourage the implementation of public-private cooperation and investment incentives in MET sector;
b. MET establishments are given credit incentives to invest in improving the quality of MET services;
c. Be exempt from corporate income tax in case of the non-divided income for investment in that MET establishment (according to current regulations, MET establishments only fall into the scope of preferential policies when they meet the standards on type, scale, human resources, facilities).
2. Classification of MET establishments by expertise level
Pursuant to the current regulations in the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2009, the MET establishment system is divided into 04 routes according to 04 administrative levels including: central level; provincial level; district level; and commune level.
The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 divides MET establishments into 03 levels of technical expertise, including:
a. Initial MET level;
b. Basic MET level;
c. Intensive MET level.
Based on service availability, range of services and professional capacity, MET establishments will be classified into a corresponding level of technical expertise. Accordingly, all levels of technical expertise must operate according to the following principles:
- A MET establishment is only classified into 01 level of technical expertise;
- In case the MET establishment can provide services of all 03 levels, it will be classified into intensive level; in case the MET establishment can provide services of both the initial and basic levels, it shall be classified into the basic level;
- MET establishment of any level must focus on providing services within that level and may perform professional techniques of other level if it meets the conditions prescribed by the Minister of Health.
3. Supplementing several binding regulations, enhancing the responsibilities of practitioners and MET establishments
The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 supplements a number of prohibited acts in MET sector for practitioners and MET establishments as follows:
a. Give prescriptions, assign technical services, medical equipments, suggest transfer of patients to other MET establishments or conduct other actions for profit purpose;
b. Decline to participate in MET in case of natural disasters, disasters, infectious diseases of class A or a state of emergency according to the mobilization decisions of competent agencies and persons (except in case the practitioner is pregnant, raising children under 24 months old or in a high-risk group for epidemic diseases);
c. Publish information accusing practitioners and MET establishments of medical incidents without the conclusion of competent agencies.
B. New regulations on expansion of patients’ rights
1. Supplementing the mechanism so that patients and socio-professional organizations on MET can propose the violation settlements against practitioners and MET establishments.
Accordingly, in addition to state management agencies in charge of healthcare, patients and socio-professional organizations can make recommendations on the inadequacies, difficulties, problems and other issues arise from the MET processes to the National Medical Council established by the Prime Minister.
2. Supplementing detailed guidelines on compensation in case of medical accidents.
Medical accident is a medical incident that harms the health and life of a patient due to (i) unintended risks even though the practitioner has complied with regulations on MET technical expertise; (ii) or technical and professional The law clarifies cases that are considered to be free of technical and professional errors, free of errors in medical accident evaluation procedures. On that basis, the patient or patient’s related persons can refer to those cases to protect themselves and ask for compensation when their rights and interests are violated during the MET process.
The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 2023 takes effect from January 1, 2024 (This also has effect on the amendments to Clause 10, Article 4 of the Law on Corporate Income Tax). Particularly, the regulations on classification of MET establishmentss by expertise level will be officially implemented from January 1, 2025.
Comment: