Vietnam Healthcare Industry Codes 2025: Old vs New VSIC After Decision 36/2025 (FDI & DDI Guide)

Vietnam’s healthcare sector—covering hospitals, clinics, diagnostics, imaging, rehabilitation, long-term care, telemedicine, and a growing ecosystem of ancillary services—has become one of the most strategically important industries for both public policy and private investment. As Vietnam’s population ages and private providers expand capacity, both foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic direct investment (DDI) are continuing to flow into new facilities, new service models, and modern “healthtech” delivery channels.

At the same time, healthcare is also one of the easiest sectors to mis-register on paper. A single healthcare operator may run outpatient services, diagnostics, imaging, pharmacy-linked services, home care, and digital follow-ups under one brand. Under Decision No. 36/2025/QĐ-TTg (Decision 36) and the updated Vietnam Standard Industrial Classification (VSIC 2025)—effective November 15, 2025—Vietnam has refined industry classification to better reflect these real-world healthcare models. That refinement is a major opportunity for investors, but only if companies choose the right primary and supplementary codes from the start.

Below is a longer, practical guide that explains what changed, why it matters, and how to register healthcare industry codes in a way that stays compliant as your services expand.

1. Why Healthcare Industry Codes Matter in Vietnam

Healthcare industry codes in Vietnam do far more than label a business. They often influence how authorities interpret operating scope, how registration documents are drafted, and how a healthcare provider’s activities are viewed during licensing and compliance processes. For FDI projects, industry code selection also affects how the Enterprise Registration Certificate (ERC) aligns with the Investment Registration Certificate (IRC) narrative, which becomes important whenever the business needs amendments, expansion approvals, or investor reporting.

In practice, correct classification helps investors in five concrete ways. First, it reduces registration friction and clarification requests because the scope description is easier to interpret. Second, it supports cleaner alignment with licensing regimes, which can differ based on whether you are providing inpatient care, outpatient services, diagnostics, or digital health delivery. Third, it reduces the risk of tax-facing ambiguity when healthcare services are bundled with other operational components. Fourth, it strengthens credibility with partners, hospitals, insurers, lenders, and due diligence teams who check whether the registered scope matches real operations. Fifth, it improves market visibility because accurate classification supports more reliable sector data, which increasingly matters for planning and investment benchmarking.

2. What Healthcare Classification Looked Like Before 2025

Under the older VSIC approach, many healthcare entities were grouped under broad health service codes that covered hospitals, outpatient care, laboratories, traditional medicine, and general support services. This structure was functional, but it often lacked enough granularity for modern healthcare delivery models.

The biggest issue was that complex service mixes could be forced into general categories. Telehealth models, specialized diagnostics and imaging businesses, and rehabilitation or long-term care providers could end up looking similar on paper even though their licensing expectations, staffing profiles, operational risks, and investment logic are very different. When a company tried to represent the full scope, the common solution was adding many supplementary codes. That increased administrative complexity, and it sometimes produced a registration profile that was broad but still not precise.

3. What Changed After Decision 36/2025 Under VSIC 2025

VSIC 2025 is more “healthcare-native” in the sense that it supports clearer segmentation of healthcare delivery and healthcare support functions. The reform matters because healthcare has evolved from a facility-based model into a networked model that includes diagnostics chains, specialty clinics, integrated rehab services, and digital care delivery.

The updated logic tends to be more future-ready in three ways. First, it distinguishes curative care delivered in inpatient settings from outpatient and clinic models more cleanly, which helps clarify operational identity. Second, it supports clearer treatment of diagnostics and imaging as distinct service lines rather than “sub-items” under general healthcare. Third, it better acknowledges digital and specialized services—telemedicine, remote monitoring, data-supported diagnostics—that were previously harder to express clearly through old groupings.

Because the updated framework is more granular, investors can now register healthcare entities in a way that better matches how they earn revenue and deliver services, rather than relying on broad healthcare labels and hoping interpretation stays consistent.

4. Old vs New Healthcare Code Structure Explained Without a Table

To understand the difference in practical terms, it helps to translate the “old vs new” comparison into real business models.

Hospital and inpatient care used to sit inside broad hospital service groupings, whereas VSIC 2025 supports clearer inpatient care identity, which becomes useful when the project is built around a hospital facility and inpatient delivery is the core activity.

Outpatient and clinic services previously could be registered under general service categories that made it difficult to distinguish between a primary care clinic chain and a specialty outpatient provider. Under VSIC 2025 logic, outpatient and clinic models can be expressed more distinctly, improving clarity for specialty clinic rollouts.

Diagnostic services and imaging were often treated as part of general health codes before, but the updated approach supports clearer separation for laboratories, diagnostics, and imaging services. This is important for investors building standalone diagnostics networks or imaging-focused centers.

Rehabilitation and long-term care used to be grouped under generalized care service categories, while VSIC 2025 supports more distinct representation of rehabilitation and long-term care activities. That matters as Vietnam’s aging demographics drive demand for post-acute recovery, physiotherapy, and extended care models.

Telemedicine and digital health were not always explicit in older classification logic, but VSIC 2025 supports clearer recognition of telehealth and digital health platform models. This helps investors avoid forcing telemedicine into generic healthcare service buckets.

Ancillary healthcare services were sometimes mixed under general services; VSIC 2025 supports cleaner representation of healthcare support functions, which can matter for operators running supply-chain-linked services, patient logistics, non-clinical support, or other ancillary healthcare business lines.

5. Why the New Classification Matters for FDI and DDI Investors

5.1 Clearer legal definition and fewer licensing misreads

Healthcare projects are heavily influenced by licensing and compliance interpretation, and classification affects first impressions. When the industry code profile clearly matches actual services, the regulatory discussion is often more predictable. For example, a specialized imaging chain benefits from a classification structure that signals diagnostics and imaging clearly rather than being read as a generic clinic.

5.2 More scalable registration for hybrid healthcare models

Many investors now build hybrid models that combine outpatient care, diagnostics, rehab services, and digital follow-ups. VSIC 2025 makes it easier to choose a primary code that matches the core revenue engine, then add supplementary codes for real secondary activities. The result is a registration scope that can scale without constant amendments or scope confusion.

5.3 Better incentive and policy alignment

Healthcare incentives are not always broad-based, but targeted support can exist depending on policy priorities and service categories. More precise classification improves an investor’s ability to present an eligibility narrative when relevant programs exist. Telehealth models, medical research-linked initiatives, or priority healthcare services can also be easier to position when their activity category is clearly defined.

5.4 Stronger data visibility for planning and financing

Precise classification supports cleaner sector tracking. For investors, this matters because better-defined sub-sector data helps with benchmarking, market sizing, and regional capacity planning—especially when lenders and partners ask for evidence-based projections.

6. Practical Registration Strategy: How to Choose Primary and Supplementary Codes

A defensible registration strategy typically follows the “revenue + delivery” principle.

First, identify the core revenue engine. If inpatient care and hospital operations drive revenue, the primary code should reflect hospital/inpatient activity. If outpatient consultations and clinic operations are the core, choose outpatient/clinic activity as primary. If diagnostics and imaging are the core, register that explicitly as the primary identity. If telehealth is the core commercial model, the primary scope should reflect digital delivery rather than being buried under generic clinical services.

Second, list real secondary services that you will deliver consistently, not “future ideas.” A clinic that also runs an in-house lab with significant volume may legitimately add diagnostics as supplementary scope. A hospital that offers a structured rehabilitation unit may add rehabilitation as reminder of ongoing service delivery. A telehealth platform that also runs physical clinics may need a combination where the primary scope reflects the dominant revenue activity, while supplementary scope covers the secondary channel.

Third, avoid the “everything bucket.” Adding too many codes can create a scope profile that looks unfocused or hard to interpret. Under VSIC 2025, precision is more defensible than breadth.

7. Real-World Scenarios for Healthcare Investors (Explained as Text)

A hospital operator building a full-service facility typically registers inpatient hospital care as the primary activity, then adds outpatient services, diagnostics/imaging, and rehabilitation as supplementary scope only if those are real recurring service lines delivered by the same entity.

A specialty clinic chain focusing on dermatology, dental, fertility, or other outpatient specialties usually registers outpatient/clinic activity as the primary scope, then adds diagnostics or imaging if it operates those services internally rather than referring out.

A diagnostics and imaging network operator typically registers diagnostics and imaging as the primary identity, then adds clinic/outpatient services only if it truly runs a physician-led outpatient component inside the same operating entity.

A rehabilitation and long-term care provider typically registers rehabilitation/long-term care as primary, then adds outpatient services if consultations are regularly delivered as part of care pathways.

A telemedicine platform that also runs physical service touchpoints typically registers digital health/telehealth activity in a way that matches platform delivery as the primary scope, then uses supplementary codes to reflect physical clinics or diagnostics only where those functions are materially part of the business model.

8. Tools to Navigate Healthcare Classification Faster and More Safely

8.1 ChatIIP — AI-Powered Industry Comparison

Healthcare businesses often span multiple services, which is exactly where misclassification risk increases. ChatIIP — AI-Powered Industry Comparison helps investors compare old vs new VSIC logic under Decision 36 and map actual service portfolios to best-fit classification choices. In practice, teams use ChatIIP to translate complex service mixes—outpatient plus diagnostics plus telemedicine—into a defensible primary and supplementary code structure, reducing administrative errors and saving time.

8.2 IIPMap — Visual Investment Insights

Healthcare investment is not only about what services you provide, but also where you expand. Demographics, access, infrastructure readiness, and regional growth patterns shape demand and operational viability. Many investors use IIPMap to identify healthcare hotspots, compare regional development signals, and support expansion planning with location intelligence that complements correct industry classification.

For local market context and sector updates, some investors also reference IIP Vietnam to follow policy shifts, investment movements, and healthcare development trends.

9. Step-by-Step Checklist for Healthcare Investors Under VSIC 2025

1. Define your exact service portfolio, separating inpatient care, outpatient care, diagnostics/imaging, rehab/long-term care, telehealth, and ancillary services.
2. Decide what drives core revenue and delivery identity, then choose that as your primary activity family under VSIC 2025.
3. Add supplementary codes only for services you will consistently deliver and can defend operationally.
4. Use ChatIIP to compare old vs new logic and validate that your code structure matches your actual model under Decision 36.
5. Cross-check licensing implications because different healthcare activities often align with different compliance expectations and approvals.
6. Use IIPMap to align market entry and expansion with regional demand, demographics, and infrastructure readiness.
7. Document your mapping rationale so amendments, audits, and partner due diligence become faster and less risky.

Under Decision 36/2025, Vietnam’s healthcare industry classification is more granular, more modern, and better aligned with the real diversity of healthcare delivery—spanning hospitals and clinics, diagnostics and imaging, rehabilitation and long-term care, telemedicine, and ancillary services. For FDI and DDI investors, that precision creates a clear advantage: a stronger legal identity, smoother compliance interpretation, clearer pathways for growth, and better market visibility.

To register accurately and reduce misclassification risk, many teams start with ChatIIP for AI-assisted industry code comparison and mapping, then strengthen expansion strategy using IIPMap for location and sector intelligence that supports smarter healthcare investment decisions across Vietnam.