Telemedicine in Vietnam

Telemedicine in Vietnam — khám bệnh, chữa bệnh từ xa — was formally codified in primary legislation for the first time by Law 15/2023/QH15. The 2009 Law on Medical Examination and Treatment did not contemplate telemedicine, and the COVID-era pilot programme under Decision 2628/QĐ-BYT (2020) operated as an emergency arrangement rather than a stable legal regime. The 2023 reform anchors telemedicine in Article 53 of the Law, with implementing conditions in Article 87 of Decree 96/2023/NĐ-CP and a clinical scope list in Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT.

Scope of this page:

• What is regulated as telemedicine and what is not.
• Legal stack: Law 15/2023 Article 53, Decree 96/2023 Article 87, Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT.
• Operating conditions for facilities providing telemedicine.
• The list of approximately 50 diseases and conditions eligible for telemedicine consultation.
• E-prescribing limits, especially for controlled substances.
• Cross-border and foreign-telemedicine arrangements.
• Data protection.
• BHYT reimbursement from 1 July 2025.

What is and is not regulated as telemedicine:

• Khám bệnh, chữa bệnh từ xa under Article 53 covers the use of information and communication technology to deliver medical examination, consultation, advice, and treatment support between a healthcare professional and a patient (or between two professionals — the "hỗ trợ KCB từ xa" inter-facility consultation channel).
• What is NOT covered: emergency care and resuscitation, surgery, intensive care, and any medical activity for which in-person assessment is required by the disease list — see below.
• Pure telephone advice without a clinical assessment or documented patient record falls outside the regulated regime; the line is the formal opening of a clinical encounter with a documented record.

Operating conditions (Decree 96/2023 Article 87, clause 1): A facility providing telemedicine must:

• Hold a valid GPHĐ KCB covering the scope it intends to deliver remotely.
• Have practitioners with the appropriate CCHN KCB for the remote services.
• Have IT infrastructure with data-security capability — encrypted transmission and storage, audit logging, authenticated identity for both practitioner and patient.
• Notify (not separately license) Bộ Y tế or Sở Y tế as appropriate; the notification regime is light-touch compared with a full new facility licence.

Eligible conditions — Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT: Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT (issued 30 December 2023, effective 1 January 2024) lists approximately 50 diseases and clinical conditions for which telemedicine consultation is permitted. The list emphasises:

• Chronic conditions with established diagnosis: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, stable cardiovascular conditions in follow-up, controlled asthma and COPD.
• Routine outpatient conditions amenable to remote assessment: pharyngitis, gingivitis, neck and shoulder pain, low back pain, obesity, dermatological conditions with visual assessment.
• Mental-health follow-up and chronic neurology in follow-up.
• Postoperative follow-up and rehabilitation guidance. Conditions and clinical situations outside the list are not eligible for telemedicine; an initial in-person diagnosis is required before any condition is moved to telemedicine follow-up.

E-prescribing and controlled substances:

• E-prescribing is permitted for telemedicine consultations within the eligible-conditions list.
• Special-control drugs (thuốc phải kiểm soát đặc biệt) — narcotic, psychotropic, precursor and radioactive substances — cannot be remotely prescribed. The Pharmacy Law and Circular 18/2026/TT-BYT require in-person assessment and documented clinical justification before these substances may be prescribed; see the Medibase Special-Control Medicines page.
• Antibiotic stewardship and broader prescription-only medicine rules apply to telemedicine on the same terms as in-person practice.

Cross-border and foreign telemedicine: A foreign telemedicine company seeking to serve patients in Vietnam cannot operate as a pure cross-border business-to-consumer service. The Law and Decree contemplate telemedicine as a service delivered by — or in collaboration with — a Vietnam-licensed facility, by practitioners holding Vietnamese CCHN KCB. Practical structures include:

• Establishing a Vietnamese-licensed facility (foreign-invested medical facility) and operating telemedicine through it.
• Partnering with a Vietnamese facility under a collaboration agreement, with practitioners on each side holding the appropriate licence in their own jurisdiction.
• The pure cross-border B2C model is not contemplated in Law 15/2023 or Decree 96/2023 and would face issues with CCHN KCB enforceability and data localisation.

Data protection: Patient data handled in telemedicine consultations is subject to:

• Law 15/2023 Article 69 (patient rights, including data rights) and Article 112 (personal health information system).
• The Personal Data Protection regime — see the Medibase Personal Data Protection page when published.
• Decree 96/2023 facility-operating IT-security requirements: encryption, audit logging, retrieval on demand by inspecting authorities.

BHYT reimbursement: A major reform: the amended Law on Health Insurance brought telemedicine, home-based KCB, family medicine and rehabilitation into the scope of BHYT-payable services effective 1 July 2025. From 1 July 2026 BHYT also covers 50 % of in-scope cost for certain out-of-tier outpatient services. Detailed pricing and procedure codes are set in implementing instruments published by the Ministry of Health and Vietnam Social Security.

Cross-cutting concerns:

• Telemedicine practitioners remain bound by the same CCHN KCB scope limitations as in-person practice; practising beyond scope via telemedicine is sanctionable.
• Continuing medical education credit hours under TT 32/2023 include a digital-health competency component.
• Facility quality assessment under TT 35/2024 includes IT-system requirements that govern telemedicine infrastructure.

Foundational law:

• Law 15/2023/QH15 Article 53 — Khám bệnh, chữa bệnh từ xa và hỗ trợ KCB từ xa. Effective 1 January 2024.
• Law on Health Insurance (amended) — telemedicine added to BHYT-payable services from 1 July 2025.

Decree:

• Decree 96/2023/NĐ-CP Article 87 — operating conditions for telemedicine delivery.

Circular:

• Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT (30 December 2023, effective 1 January 2024) — list of approximately 50 diseases and conditions eligible for telemedicine consultation.

Adjacent regimes (cross-cutting):

• Pharmacy Law + Circular 18/2026/TT-BYT — special-control drugs cannot be remotely prescribed.
• Circular 32/2023/TT-BYT — practice scope and digital-health competencies in CME.
• Circular 35/2024/TT-BYT — basic quality standards including IT-system requirements.

Superseded / historical:

• Decision 2628/QĐ-BYT (2020) — COVID-era telemedicine pilot programme, subsumed under Law 15/2023.

Sanctions:

• Decree 117/2020/NĐ-CP (amended by Decree 124/2021).
• Penal Code Article 315.

Law and decree:

• Law 15/2023/QH15 — https://vanban.chinhphu.vn/?pageid=27160&docid=207396
• Decree 96/2023/NĐ-CP — https://vanban.chinhphu.vn/?pageid=27160&docid=209491

Circular:

• Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT (telemedicine disease list) — https://thuvienphapluat.vn/van-ban/The-thao-Y-te/Thong-tu-30-2023-TT-BYT-danh-muc-benh-tinh-trang-benh-duoc-kham-chua-benh-tu-xa-593328.aspx

Operational portals:

• Bộ Y tế — Cục Quản lý KCB — https://kcb.vn
• Vietnam Social Security (BHYT) — https://baohiemxahoi.gov.vn

Sanctions:

• Decree 117/2020/NĐ-CP — https://vanban.chinhphu.vn/default.aspx?pageid=27160&docid=201105

Medibase cross-references:

• Reference — Medical Practice Licensing — /practice/practice-licensing/
• Reference — Healthcare Facility Licensing — /practice/facility-licensing/
• Reference — Special-Control Medicines (no remote prescribing) — /medicine/special-control/
• News — Telemedicine for foreign companies — /news/telemedicine-vietnam-regulations-conditions-foreign-companies-2026/

2020 — Decision 2628/QĐ-BYT launches COVID-era telemedicine pilot programme.

9 January 2023 — Law 15/2023/QH15 passed, including Article 53 codifying telemedicine for the first time.

30 December 2023 — Decree 96/2023/NĐ-CP issued with Article 87 on operating conditions; Circular 30/2023/TT-BYT issued with the eligible-conditions list.

1 January 2024 — Law 15/2023, Decree 96/2023, and Circular 30/2023 enter into force. The 2020 pilot is subsumed under the new legal framework.

1 July 2025 — Amended Law on Health Insurance brings telemedicine, home-based KCB, family medicine and rehabilitation into BHYT-payable scope.

1 July 2026 — BHYT begins covering 50 % of certain out-of-tier outpatient services.