The Law on Medical Examination and Treatment 15/2023/QH15, in force from 1 January 2024, is the largest rewrite of the health sector in over a decade. For operating hospitals and clinics, four changes touch daily operations directly: time-limited practice licences, a phased competency assessment, a new technical-level grading of facilities, and a redesigned service-pricing regime.
Practice licences: from lifetime certificates to five-year terms
The deepest change sits in Article 27 of the law: each practitioner holds only one practising licence, valid nationwide, with a five-year term — replacing the lifetime practice certificate of the old law. Licensing requires completing the practice period under Decree 96/2023/ND-CP (for example doctors practise 12 months, including 3 months of emergency resuscitation) and, on a phased roadmap, passing the competency assessment organised by the National Medical Council: applying to doctors from 1 January 2027, to assistant doctors, nurses and midwives from 1 January 2028, and to remaining titles from 1 January 2029. A hospital must administer its whole staff’s licence-renewal calendar like the facility’s own licence expiry — a doctor whose licence lapses is a lawfully empty consultation post.
Technical-level grading: three levels replace the old hospital ranking
The 2023 Law drops the old hospital-ranking mechanism and divides facilities into three technical-expertise levels: primary level (initial examination, outpatient treatment and primary community healthcare), basic level (general outpatient and inpatient examination and treatment), and specialised level (advanced techniques, research, training and technique transfer). The level is determined by criteria in Decree 96/2023/ND-CP and guiding texts, and it decides the technical list the facility may perform, referral pathways, and the reference point for patients and health insurance. A newly founded private facility should choose its target level when designing scale and staffing, because upgrading later means a fresh round of condition appraisal.
Medical service prices and the follow-up texts still being completed
The pricing regime is rewritten in tiers: services at State facilities follow prices prescribed by the State within its framework; private facilities may set their own service prices but must declare and publicly list them and comply with price-information duties toward patients. After Decree 96/2023/ND-CP — the main guiding decree on practice and operation conditions — the follow-up system (circulars on per-level technical lists, referral rules, forms and the management information system for medical activities, with information upload to the system starting 1 January 2027) is still issuing on its roadmap. Hospital managers should keep a dedicated medical-law watch register, because each new circular can change a facility’s technical list or reporting duties on short notice.
Frequently asked questions
What is new about the medical practising licence?
The practising licence under the 2023 Law (Article 27) carries core novelties: each practitioner holds only one licence, valid nationwide, with a five-year term requiring renewal; licensing conditions tie to the practice period under Decree 96/2023/ND-CP and, on the roadmap, to the competency-assessment result — competency assessment applies to doctors from 1 January 2027 and to other titles from 2028 and 2029. This is a fundamental change from the former unlimited-term practice certificate.
What are the hospital grading criteria?
Under the 2023 Law and Decree 96/2023/ND-CP, facilities are divided by technical-expertise level instead of the old ranking, in three levels: primary (primary healthcare, examination and outpatient treatment), basic (general outpatient and inpatient examination and treatment) and specialised (advanced techniques, training, research and technique transfer). Grading criteria rest on the facility’s scale, technical scope, practising staff and technique-performance capacity.
How does the medical service price mechanism work?
The mechanism is tiered by facility type: State medical facilities apply service prices under the State’s prescribed framework; private facilities may set their own service prices but must declare and publicly list them so patients know before using services. Service prices also ground health-insurance payment under the prescribed lists and benefit levels.
What conditions apply to foreign-invested hospitals?
Facility, staffing and professional-scope conditions basically do not distinguish capital source: a foreign-invested hospital is licensed to operate under the same Law 15/2023 and Decree 96/2023 as a domestic facility, and is graded by the same technical-level criteria. The foreign-specific layer sits in investment (investment registration) and in foreign doctors’ practice conditions, including a Vietnamese practising licence and the language condition when practising.
FLAT Law Firm — FLAT Law Firm advises hospitals and clinics on compliance with the 2023 Medical Law: practice-licence renewal calendars, technical-level grading and tracking of follow-up guiding texts.
This article has been quality-reviewed by the FLAW AI Legal Council