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The Ministry of Health proposes reorganizing two units and establishing the Health Insurance Directorate and the IT and Digital Transformation Directorate. Under the proposed organizational structure, the ministry would retain four departments (Organization and Personnel, International Cooperation, Planning – Finance, Legal), keep 10 directorates and two public service units (Institute of Health Strategy and Policy, Health and Life Journal), and abolish the ministry’s Inspectorate as provided for by the 2025 Inspectorate Law.
The ministry would reorganize the Health Insurance Department into the Health Insurance Directorate. It would also reorganize the National Center for Health Information into the IT and Digital Transformation Directorate.
The MoH states that the National Center for Health Information—previously the IT Center under the ministry before November 2022—is a public service unit responsible for performing state management functions. The ministry says that immediate and long-term IT and digital transformation tasks are substantial, aligned with Party and State goals and the needs of people and patients.
According to the MoH, state management in this area is currently assigned to the Department of Science and Technology and Training (Management of Information Technology), while implementation is assigned to the National Center for Health Information. The ministry says the implementation process has encountered difficulties, obstacles, and overlaps, and therefore proposes consolidating responsibilities into a single focal point: the IT and Digital Transformation Directorate under the MoH. The directorate would be responsible for exercising state management authority and guiding, organizing, and implementing IT and digital transformation activities within the ministry and the health sector.
For the Health Insurance Department, the MoH says the department is an administrative unit under the ministry that advises the minister on state management of health insurance. The department is assigned nine groups of specialized tasks in health insurance, plus additional new tasks. Regular annual tasks include drafting, revising, and supplementing legal documents, mechanisms, and policies in the health insurance field; formulating strategies and overall plans for health insurance development; proposing solutions to strengthen insured examination and treatment capacity at grassroots medical facilities; and measures to ensure balance of the health insurance fund.
The MoH adds that reorganizing the department into a directorate is necessary to carry out these tasks in line with directives of the Politburo and the Secretariat (Resolution 72-NQ/TW and Directive 52-CT/TW) and other relevant legal documents, and to ensure social welfare in the health sector.
The MoH states that establishing two directorates—Health Insurance and IT and Digital Transformation—meets the criteria in Government Decree No. 303/2025/NĐ-CP. Under the decree, the directorate would have legal status, a seal, and separate accounts. The director would issue professional guidance documents within the scope managed by the directorate.
Regarding criteria for establishing a directorate, the MoH notes that it must cover a subject within the state’s management scope; it must be authorized by the minister to decide matters within its scope under the Government’s delegation; and the workload must require at least 30 civil service staff.
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