Mission Report: Revising Basic Health Benefit Package for Social Health Insurance 19 – 20 April 2016

Vietnam is one of the countries that are on the journey to achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). With the Health Insurance Law enacted in 2008, and master plan for UHC approved by the prime minister in 2012, health insurance coverage has been continuously developed both in terms of population and services covered. Currently, there are more than 20,000 items covered in the
benefits package, which is generous. In the revised Health Insurance Law, the concept of Basic Health Service Package (BHSP) was introduced under the Social Health Insurance (SHI) scheme,
overlooked by Vietnam Social Security (VSS) with the aim to help prioritize and rationalize the use of health interventions in the benefits package. Appointed by Vietnamese Ministry of Health (MOH), Health Strategy and Policy Institute (HSPI), Vietnam, collaborates with Health Intervention and Technology Assessment Program (HITAP), Thailand, to generate evidence to inform the Council for BHSP who is responsible for the development of the BHSP. HITAP is responsible for providing technical support on health technology assessment (HTA) and supervisions to 8 Vietnamese researchers who are recruited by HSPI to work full-time on producing the evidence. The evidence generation and policy recommendation formulation started in April and is expected to be finished and presented to the Council for BHSP in May.

Prior to this visit, HSPI hosted HITAP a visit during 7-18 March 2016 to discuss the scope and framework of the work with HSPI and research team, comprising staff from HSPI and Hanoi School of Public Health (HSPH). The scope, framework, list of interventions selected for review, and the manner for result presentation were developed and presented to stakeholders to consult for their opinions. 8 scholars from HSPI and HSPH led the effort by reviewing the evidence according to agreed protocol with the support from HITAP staff throughout the process. Afterward, the Vietnamese researchers continue to work on the review with constant communication with HITAP staff to ensure that guidance can be conveniently sought and provided.

As a follow-up to the first visit, another visit was scheduled in Vietnam on 19-20 April. The objectives of the visit were to update the progress of the reviews, discuss obstacles found and solutions, and plan for the next steps with the Vietnamese researchers.