Group Health Insurance in Vietnam; The Ultimate Guide for Employers
written by Quinn Miller, Partner at
Employee Benefits Asia by Tenzing Pacific Services
Table of Contents
About Us
Employee Benefits Asia is a dedicated brand of Tenzing Pacific Services, Vietnam’s leading expat insurance broker since 2013. We have over 130+ perfect 5-star Google Reviews and have written this guide to provide you & your organization clarity on group health insurance in Vietnam.
We work with groups of all sizes, from 1 employee to 500+ from local, regional & international providers who service Vietnam. Our dedicated support to our cilents leads to exceptional user experiences in an industry full of landmines.
Social vs. Private Insurance
Providing group health insurance in Vietnam is a critical strategy for attracting and retaining employees, whether you’re a startup, SME, or large corporation. In addition to the social insurance, you can choose to get private group health insurance in Vietnam. Health insurance is a leading employee benefit to offer your employees in Vietnam.
Here’s how they compare:
Features
Social
Private
Note: If you choose private group health insurance in Vietnam, you’re not released of your social insurance obligations.
Why Get Group Health Insurance in Vietnam?
There are many benefits to putting group health insurance through your Vietnamese company, including:
- Get your employees covered for large, unexpected medical bills
- Get a VAT invoice
- Health Insurance is tax exempt, so there’s no additional fees
- Helps reduce your income tax burden by putting as an company expense
- Savey money on your premium with group health insurance discounts
- Centralize your policy offering & administration
- Get access to plans only available to groups
Initial Things to Consider
When setting up your group health insurance in Vietnam, you will need to consider the following:
- What is the primary objective of your group health insurance plan?
- What does the ideal plan look like for your company?
- What budget is available for the plan?
- Which employees will be offered private insurance? Will it be available to all or only certain groups?
- Will all employees be with the same insurance provider?
- What benefits do you plan to offer?
- Will the plan cover dependents?
- Will the company pay the full premium, or will a portion be deducted from employees’ salaries?
- How will you balance employee satisfaction with cost management?
Any of these factors can change which providers we recommend to you. This is why it’s important to work with an experienced broker like EB Asia by Tenzing Pacific Services, who can guide you towards the ones that suit your company and steer you clear from the ones that will cause you headaches.
Strike the Balance
You want to have an even balance between:
- What’s good for your employees
- What’s good for your company
- What the cost is
That is a very fine line & if you don’t get it right, you’re looking at:
- Disgruntled employees (definitely not an employee benefit)
- Unsustainable premiums year-over-year
- Changing providers, processes, rules, etc. constantly
It’s critical to get it right from the beginning and build a plan that’s sustainable long-term and strikes the right balance between what’s good for your employees and what’s good for your company.
Group Health Insurance Providers
Vietnamese Providers
There are many insurance providers to consider in Vietnam, including health insurance providers with offices in Vietnam and international providers as well.
There is a growing list of insurers in Vietnam with offices, local payment & who can issue VAT invoices. We group these into 3 categories:
- Budget friendly– local health insurer in Vietnam with budget friendly plans with lower limits, coverage areas & stricter rules
- Best value – good value all things considered, benefits for your premium with regional direct billing
- High quality- the highest benefits limits, coverage area & global direct billing
Vietnamese providers include:
|
Best Value
|
Highes Quality
|
Budget Friendly
|
|---|---|---|
|
April Essential
|
Allianz Care VN
|
Bao Minh
|
|
Henner
|
April Extensive
|
Bao Viet
|
|
Liberty Healthcare
|
April Elite
|
Liberty Medicare
|
|
Luma Premier
|
Luma Pro
|
MIC
|
|
Luma Plus
|
-
|
Pacific Cross
|
|
-
|
-
|
PTI
|
|
-
|
-
|
PVI
|
International Providers
If youre company is paying with an offshore entity, like a holding company in another country, then you can also choose an international provider. Like with the Vietnamese insurers, we group them into the same 3 categories.
International providers include:
|
Best Value
|
Highest Quality
|
Budget Friendly
|
|---|---|---|
|
ACS Asia
|
Allianz Care Global
|
ACS Expat
|
|
April France
|
AXA Global
|
IMG Global
|
|
HCI
|
Bupa Global
|
April Easy Care
|
|
IPH
|
Insured Nomads
|
Expacare
|
|
Morgan Price UK
|
MSH
|
Morgan Price SEA
|
|
Optimum Global
|
Now Health
|
Pacific Cross HK
|
|
VUMI
|
William Russell
|
Luma Int'l
|
Local vs. International Style Plans for Groups
The way local Vietnamese insurers and international insurers do groups is very different. It’s completely different structure, benefit limits & ultimately premium.
Here’s how they compare:
Features
Local
Int'l
Benefits & Coverage Area
Coverage Area:
Insurance providers in Vietnam usually offer four coverage areas:
- Vietnam only
- Asia excl. Singapore, Hong Kong & China
- Worldwide excluding USA
- Worldwide
The wider the coverage area, the higher your premiums will be, especially if you want them to be able to seek treatment in higher cost countries like Singapore.
Benefit Options:
Inpatient coverage is a mandatory benefit and usually includes emergency evacuation. Optional benefits may include:
- Outpatient doctor visits
- Annual health checks
- Routine dental
- Maternity
- Personal accident
Benefit Sub-limits:
Basic plans may have sub-limits, which can result in out-of-pocket expenses if costs exceed these limits. More comprehensive plans come with higher benefit limits but also higher premiums, minimizing the chance of out-of-pocket expenses for employees.
Optional Benefits
In addition to group health insurance in Vietnam, you can optionally choose to add:
- Group life insurance
- an Employee Assistance program (EAP), which is an employee mental wellbeing service.
Read our articles about these options in Vietnam:
Group Health Insurance Premiums
Group health insurance premiums vary wildly in Vietnam between local style plans and normal international health insurance.
Local Style
With local style plans, they will offer many different benefits with very low annual limits and low sub-limits for benefits. For example, the annual limit might only be 60M-200M vnd ($2.5K USD – $8K USD)
Typical premium amounts for local style plans:
For example, you might say you want 3 quotes at:
- 3-5M vnd/person/year
- 5-8M vnd/person/year
- 10-12M vnd/person year
Then the local Vietnamese providers will provide quotes and adjust the benefit limits to fit within the budget. With this style of plan, you are not required to submit the full census of all your employees. You just tell us:
- how many employees
- budget per person/year
- will there be different tiers by level of employee? Or will everyone have the same benefits?
International Style
This style of plan will have higher limits and generally focus on inpatient, outpatient & main benefits with higher limits, wider direct billing and at international hospitals and clinics with English speaking doctors, whether that’s in Vietam, regionally in Asia or worldwide. In order to obtain group health insurance quotes in Vietnam, you’ll be required to submit a full employee census, including:
- Date of Births
- Gender
- Nationality
- Residence Country
- Status (Employee, Spouse or Dependent)
- Tier (level 1, level 2, etc if there will be higher benefits for different levels of employee)
Ultimately, the price/person will depend on which provider, plan, benefit limits & ages of your employees. But typically with international style plans you’ll need to have budget of at least $1,000/person/year, though it could be less if you have a young demographic on inpatient only.
Direct Billing in Vietnam
Group health insurance in Vietnam offers cashless direct billing for:
- Inpatient
- Outpatient
- Annual Health Checks
- Routine Dental
- Maternity
Each provider will have an exact list which will vary, depending on the level of provider it is, the benefit limits & your premium.
Local Hospitals & Clinics
Local Vietnamese insurers will have a diverse cashless direct billing network at local hospitals & clinics all across Vietnam in major cities.For example,
- Hoan My
- Vinmec
- and many many more
Here’s an example of Bao Viet’s direct biling network.
International Hospitals & Clinics
For international style plans, they will have a wider coverage area and also regional cashless at international hospitals & clinics in Vietnam and across SE Asia. For example, enjoy direct billing at:
- Vietnam: Family Medical Practice, FV Hospital, Raffles Clinic
- Thailand: Bumrungrad, Samitivej, Bangkok Hospitals
Here’s an example of April’s direct billing network
Pay & Claim Reimbursements
In the event you or one of your employees has to pay & claim, then Tenzing’s in-house customer service team is on your side to help you. Read more about our full service here.
Pre-existing Conditions
Some private insurers in Vietnam offer coverage for pre-existing conditions with Medical Health Disregarded (MHD) provisions, typically for groups starting from 5 employees. However, not many providers offer this, and it tends to be costly. Generally, to get MHD coverage, you need:
Local Style
50+ employees
International Style
10+
total people, adults or employees, depending on the exact company
Watch Video about This:
Employee Tiers + Dependents
Two key decisions you’ll need to make are:
- Will everyone have the same plan selection? Or will you give higher tiered employees more benefits, wider coverage area or cover their dependents?
- Will you cover dependents automatically for everyone?
Deciding whether to cover dependents is up to each organization. Large corporations usually extend coverage to dependents, including spouses and children. Some startups and SMEs may also cover dependents, depending on their budget.
It’s also possible to provide dependent coverage selectively, for example, only to senior management or directors.
Ex. a tiered plan
|
|
C-Level
|
Managers
|
Normal Staff
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Coverage Area
|
WW excl. USA
|
SE Asia
|
Vietnam
|
|
Benefits Limits
|
Highest Limits
|
Higher Liits
|
Lowest Limits
|
|
Dependents
|
Allowed
|
Allowed
|
Not Allowed
|
How to Save Money on your Premium
Although group health insurance in Vietnam can be extremely cheap or expensive, there are strategies to lower premiums no matter what tier of provider you have.
Installments
• Pay monthly
• Pay quarterly
• Pay semi-annually
Reduce Benefits
• Focus on Inpatient
• Skip Outpatient
• Save 50% by doing so
Reduce Area
• Asia focused cover
• Ditch worldwide
• Save 25-30% by doing so
Direct Billing
• Pay & Claim for Outpatient
• Small hassle? Yes
• Save money by doing so
• Claims paid in <7 days
Deductible
• Pay $X out-of-pocket 1st
• Insurance kicks in after
• ex. $1K USD deductible
• Get 20% OFF
Co-pay
• Agree to pay X%
• Example 20% of OP expenses
• Save money by doing so
Get Quotes for Group Health Insurance in Vietnam
Our Service
Our service is completely free for you, it does not cost anything extra to have a professional broker on your side to help with:
1) Initial Consultation & Quotes
We need to understand your needs, then we will get quotes from suitable providers that meet your needs & budget. We will then present them to you, explain them in English or Vietnamese, answer your questions & help you make an informed decision.
2) Plan Launch
We provide a training session at plan launch to help employees understand their policy, how it works, processes, who to contact, what to be careful of, etc.
3) Customer Service
We are the liaison between you, your employees, the hospital/clinic + the insurer. We have an in-house customer service team that:
- Works on behalf of you & your team, not the insurer
- Coordinate direct billing or guarantees of payment
- Process claims & reimbursements
- Resolve any matters when an issue arises
- Answering employees questions so your HR doesn’t have to
Read what real customers say about our complimentary customer service.
4) Policy Administration
Our customer service team works with your HR or main point of contact for anything related to:
- Application forms & contracts
- Distribution of policy documents, cards, getting your employees app/portal set up
- Invoices, payments & VATs
- Adding or removing employees
5) Renewal
Around 2 monts before your policy is set to renew, we’ll do an annual review with you. Get your feedback & your employees feedback about what worked, what didn’t work & look at what changes can be made at the renewal date.
Group health Insurance FAQs
That depends on the provider, some providers cut off at age 64, 65 or 70.
Insurers normally do not check if an expat has a work permit or TRC. A local provider or two requires them in order to pay claims.
You normally need to have 3+ employees to form a group, the exact rule vary by provider. The more employees you have at the start of a group health insurance policy, the higher the group discount will be
With group health insurance in Vietnam, you’re entitled to a prorated refund when they leave. This will ultimately depend on how many employees you have, the type of underwriting & whether or not they’ve made a claim. For MHD policies, refunds are much easier.
When you hire someone, they will be added to your group health insurance policy as a midyear addition. A pro-rated premium will apply based on how many remaining days are left in the year or payment period you’ve selected.
If you only have a few expats, you could let them take out their own policy with a different provider. You could also put them on the same plan as all your local staff and put them into their own tier, by doing this you can provide them higher benefits, coverage areas, etc. that are more suitable to their expectations.
The very local Vietnamese insurers will not allow employees in other countries. Providers like Luma, Henner, April, Allianz can allow employees in other countries. International providers can also allow this, though some international providers are designed for expats only.
With most group health insurance in Vietnam, the payment is done via bank transfer. You can get a VAT invoice & some providers allow for payment installments, rules vary by provider. If you have payment stipulations, please tell us when you make your quote request.
EB Asia is a dedicated brand of Tenzing Pacific Services, designed to focus on employee benefits, groups and personal insurance for business leaders & their families.
Yes we have two offices in Ho Chi Minh City + we are available for a quick initial discovery call via a 15-minute google meeting where we can get some info & get the ball rolling.