07-Jun-16 Korea is pushing ahead with a nationwide telemedicine platform despite strong opposition from doctors. Korea revised its Medicine Law in 2002 to allow only telemedicine consults between clinicians, preventing them from treating patients. In renewing the call for a national platform, officials said the service would be limited to “residents with specific medical, social or geographic conditions.” [image: mHealth Intelligence]

07-Jun-16 From Aug-16 to Jan-17, there will be five increases to hospital charges in Vietnam. Hospitals are not to collect extra money from patients, except for the gap in insurance coverage. Charges must be based on market demand, not on revenue targets. Hospitals must also spend at least 5% of their revenue on improving medical services. [image: Duc Anh]

06-Jun-16 Vietnam's Prime Minister targets 90% of Vietnamese having health insurance by 2020. After 25 years of implementing health insurance, coverage has reached 75%. He asked local authorities and ministries to prepare specific plans and tasks to achieve the 90% target. All hospitals must connect their data to national health insurance inspection networks in order to receive payments. [image: Vietnam Net]

06-Jun-16 Hospitals in China are to benefit from advanced new data analysis that will improve patient care, following an agreement between Telstra Health and the Shanghai Institute of Medical Quality. This will see the rollout of Telstra Health’s Quality Investigator program, which enables users to measure and analyse mortality, readmission and length of stay to help improve clinical quality and safety. [image: Telstra Health]

05-Jun-16 160 million people are so far members of the "JKN" universal health insurance program in Indonesia, and it has been credited with helping many since its 2014 launch. But it faces numerous challenges, from underfunding, to slow and patchy implementation, to long lines at clinics in densely populated areas, where the system has become a victim of its own success. [image: AFP-JIJI]