(binhthuan.gov.vn) The use of citizen identification cards (ID cards) to go for medical examination and treatment is creating many advantages for people; at the same time, this is also an inevitable trend when moving towards to a modern administration.

In early 2022, the Ministry of Health issued Official Dispatch no 971/BYT-BH guiding the pilot implementation of health insurance medical examination and treatment using chip-mounted ID cards. To implement Decision no 06/QD-TTg of the Prime Minister, creating convenience for people when going for medical examination and treatment with health insurance, the Ministry of Health requested the heads of: Department of Health of provinces and centrally-run cities; hospitals and institutes under the Ministry of Health; Medical examination and treatment facilities under central ministries and agencies must focus resources to welcome and organize medical examination and treatment for patients with ID cards equipped with chips integrated with health insurance card codes or through the VNEID application. Accordingly, the Ministry of Health guided: Medical examination and treatment facilities publicly notify patients and welcome patients when going for medical examination and treatment with health insurance using chip-mounted ID cards or via VNEID application, and only applies to citizens who have successfully registered for an electronic identity account provided by the Ministry of Public Security.

After more than 1 year of implementing the above guidance, the Provincial Social Security has carried out many tasks assigned by Vietnam Social Insurance and the Provincial People's Committee such as: connecting and sharing data between the national population database and the national insurance database; deploying techniques to gradually ensure the use of ID cards and national electronic identification (VNEID) applications to replace paper health insurance cards for health insurance medical examination and treatment.

In addition, the Provincial Social Security has sent many letters to agencies, departments, localities and health insurance medical examination and treatment facilities on the application and implementation of looking up health insurance card information using chip-mounted ID cards to serve health insurance medical examination and treatment. At the same time, the Provincial People's Committee also requested the Project 06 Working Group to carry out related tasks, such as promoting propaganda to health insurance participants and medical facilities about the use of chip-embedded ID cards and VNEID application to participate in health insurance medical examination and treatment instead of paper health insurance cards.

By the end of September 2023, the whole province had 976,224 personal identification numbers/citizen identification cards synchronized with valid health insurance cards for medical examination and treatment at 132 medical facilities; There were 242,633 searches for health insurance information via citizen identification, of which 202,051 searches were successful. Currently, the whole province has a synchronized and authenticated number of 1,007,749/1,075,670 people participating in social insurance and health insurance, reaching a rate of 94%, the remaining number that must be synchronized and authenticated by the end of the year is 6%, equivalent to 67,805 people. This group is mostly people who do not have personal identification numbers/citizen identification cards, or do have but do not match the national population database. The number of participants is not consistent, mainly among the elderly, near-poor households, children under 6 years old, students...

Currently, 100% of medical facilities across the province have deployed medical examination and treatment using chip-mounted ID cards. Most hospitals are equipped with machinery systems connected to the databases of authorities. Medical staffs are also trained to perform related steps. Up to now, the use of ID cards for medical examination and treatment is increasingly being perfected, promptly overcoming arising problems, and it has since been responded to and used by the people./.

Hữu Tri