VIETNAM SOCIAL SECURITY ISSUES A NEW HEALTH INSURANCE CARD

On December 3rd, 2020, the General Director of Vietnam Social Security signed Decision No. 1666 / QD-BHXH promulgating the form of health insurance card for using nationwide. This Decision takes effect from April 1st, 2021.

The front of the new health insurance card template

1. Add more gadgets

Compared with the current model of health insurance card, the new model has many differences that bring many benefits to the participants, specifically:

• • The size of the card is more compact, the appearance is better (the size is the same as that of a citizen’s identity card and some ATM cards today), convenient to keep and fit in the wallet.
  • The paper weight of the card is thicker and is covered with plastic: it helps increase the durability and hardness of the card, meets the requirements of long-term preservation, avoids water, moisture, mold, crumbling, tearing, translucent ink when using.
  • Change the font: clearly, easy to read, easy to check, and limit errors in the information printed on the card.
  • The new card number is 10 characters of the participant’s social insurance code (replacing the 15 characters of the current health insurance card number). Purpose: to reduce the number of characters the participant needs to declare when looking up on the Vietnam Social Security Portal (http://baohiemxahoi.gov.vn) or when checking on the Public Service Portal of Vietnam Social Security (https://dichvucong.baohiemxahoi.gov.vn).
  • The new card model uses session signs of Vietnam Social Security and the scanned signature of the Head of the Contribution Collection – Insurance Book and Card Department (or the head of the unit under the social insurance authority assigned by the General Director of Vietnam Social Security to sign the order) helps the participant to conveniently carry out the procedures for re-issuance or change of card due to the loss or damage of the card at any social insurance agency nationwide.
  • The back of the new card model has more instructions on how to use the health insurance card, helping the participants know how to look up information about the health insurance card and their benefits. Understand how to contact the social insurance agency for guidance and support all difficulties related to the card and card usage.

The back of the new health insurance card template

2. The current health insurance card is still valid and continues to be used for medical treatment

• • • The health insurance card issued is still valid and used for medical examination and treatment under health insurance normally.
    • Beside the entitlement code and the code where the person lives is still printed on the new model health insurance card, from April 1, 2021, when doing a lookup on the portal of the Health Insurance Inspection Information System and the Portal Online Vietnam Social Security, employees can know more information as follows:-> Other management information such as: code of the person who pays health insurance, address of residence, … of the participant.

  -> The period of exemption from co-payment within the scope of health insurance benefits when going for medical care at the right level (when the participant has been determined by the social insurance agency to have full 5 years of continuous health insurance participation and has the amount of payment for medical care costs for the year greater than 6 months base salary).

*References: 

Decision on Issuing model of health insurance card