• 보건행정학회지
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.207-224
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• 2012

This study estimates the total health expenditure of ambulatory dental care and explores the factors related to disbursements. The study used two waves of a 2008 Korea Health Panel (KHP) survey, of which each wave is composed of 7866 households and 24,659 persons. The KHP includes missing expanses of reimbursement data of the National Health Insurance (NHI), such as out-of-pocket, drugs, and private health insurance. The study estimates total monthly ambulatory dental expenditure and the sub-special categories of dental care. For influential factors analyses, the study exploits log-linear model with age, gender, education, job, equivalence income, the status of chronic diseases, means-tested benefit recipients, private insurance, and the composite deprivation index as independent variables. The total monthly outpatient health spending is estimated to be 102,468 won per household, and for dental, each household spends 31,115 won per month. Older age, means-test recipients, non-regular workers are more likely to spend less money on dental care, whereas private insurers, high income, and those who live in less deprived areas are more likely to spend more money for dental services. From the study we found that the KHP data are more suitable to estimate the total amount of health care markets, especially when the NHI coverage is low, such as for dental care in Korea.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제24권3호
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• pp.228-241
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• 2014

Background: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effect of health insurance coverage expansion for cancer patients on equity in health care utilization and catastrophic expenditure. Methods: To analyze the causal relationship between the policy to expand benefit coverage and the change in health care utilization and out-of-pocket payments of cancer patients, this study employed a difference-in-differences (DID) method. In the DID model, the change in health care utilization, such as health care expenditure, visit days and length of stay, of cancer patients was compared with that of liver disease patients, using Korea Health Panel Data in 2009 and 2010. Results: The policy of reducing cost sharing from 10% to 5% for cancer patients did not have significant effects on equity in health care utilization. The results of this study were different from those of the previous study that showed that the reduction of cost sharing from 20% to 10% significantly improved the equity in health care utilization of cancer patients. In addition, the result of catastrophic expenditures analysis showed the policy did not change the probability of catastrophic expenditures. Conclusion: The results of this study imply that payment for non-covered services account for high out-of-pocket payments, and the reduction in cost sharing for covered services alone may have a limited effect on total financial burden on patients.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제26권4호
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• pp.343-351
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• 2016

Background: This study aims to analyze the effects of insurance types on the medical service uses for heart failure inpatients using propensity score matching (PSM). Methods: 2014 National inpatient sample based on health insurance claims data was used in the analysis. PSM was applied to control factors influencing the service uses except insurance types. Negative binomial regression was used after PSM to analyze factors that had influences on the service uses among inpatients. Subjects were divided by health insurance type, national health insurance (NHI) and medical aid (MA). Total charges and length of stay were used to represent the medical service uses. Covariance variables in PSM consist of sociodemographic characteristics (gender, age, Elixhauser comorbidity index) and hospital characteristics (hospital types, number of beds, location, number of doctors per 50 beds). These variables were also used as independent variables in negative binomial regression. Results: After the PSM, length of stay showed statistically significant difference on medical uses between insurance types. Negative binomial regression provided that insurance types, Elixhauser comorbidity index, and number of doctors per 50 beds were significant on the length of stay. Conclusion: This study provided that the service uses, especially length of stay, were differed by insurance types. Health policy makers will be required to prepare interventions to narrow the gap of the service uses between NHI and MA.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제30권1호
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• pp.37-49
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• 2020

Background: Unmet healthcare needs have many advantages for measuring inequalities in healthcare use. However, the existing indicator is difficult to capture the reality of unmet healthcare needs sufficiently and is not quite appropriate in comparing regional inequality. The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the utilization of the unmet healthcare need indicator for regional healthcare inequalities research. Methods: We used the level of healthcare accessibility and healthcare need to categorize the regions that are known to cause differences in healthcare utilization between regions and verified how existing unmet healthcare need indicator is distributed at the regional level. Results: Four types of regions were classified according to the high and low levels of healthcare needs and accessibility. The hypothesis about the regional type expected to have the highest unmet healthcare need was not proved. The hypothesis about the lowest expected regional type was proved, but the difference in the average rate of unmet healthcare needs among regional types was not significant. The standard deviation of the rate of unmet healthcare needs among regions within the same type was also higher than the overall regional variation, which also disproved the whole frame of hypothesis. Conclusion: Failure to prove the hypothesis means the gap between the supposed meaning of the indicator and the reality. In order to understand the current state of healthcare utilization of people in various regions of Korea and to resolve inequality, fundamental research on the in-depth structure and mechanisms of healthcare utilization is needed.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제11권1호
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• pp.107-130
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• 2001

During the last year, we had a very severe situation with the strike of physicians working in medical facilities. From that time, many politicians and scholars insisted on the expansion of public hospitals to enhance the public role in the medical care sector. They think that private medical facilities work for profit motivation and that the high proportion of private to whole facilities is an obstacle to the public function of medical care under social insurance system. They found that one of the reasons for failing to prevent the physicians' strike was the high proportion of private facilities. Others insisted that the strike was not a good reason for the expansion of public hospitals. The physicians' strike was a very rare case, and it is not a good basis for generalization of the discussion of public hospitals. Last year almost all apprentice physicians in public facilities took part in the strike, and consequently the public hospitals also lost the role of public function. They view this increasing involvement of government in the medical sector as improper and the cause of inefficiencies. In this paper we review the debate over the expansion of public facilities. To clarify the debate, we review traditional criteria for the role of government in a market system and to apply these criteria to medical care. There are two traditional areas where government Is acknowledged to have a role in a market system: market imperfections and market failure. Where market imperfections and market failure exist, there may be a role for government. The justifications for government intervention are consumer protection and the existence of externalities. One of externalities is to provide medical care for the poor. The appropriate measures to provide medical owe to the poor can be sought in both demand and supply side subsidies. National health insurance is a method of demand subsidies and establishment of public hospitals is a method of supply side subsidies. Under the National Health Insurance System, the expansion of public hospitals is not an appropriate subsidy policy.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.35-47
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• 2018

Background: The purpose of this study is to elucidate the context of medical experience and the perception of unmet healthcare of elderly people with chronic diseases based on in-depth interview data. Methods: We carried out in-depth interviews with 10 elderly people with chronic diseases using semi-structured questionnaires based on literature review. The in-depth interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis; one qualitative research methodology, three core meaning categories, and four attributes associated with unmet healthcare were ultimately derived. Results: The context of the medical experience were based on the following three categories: (1) discomfort due to diseases and high medical needs, (2) the poor community medical environment and difficulties in accessing to metropolitan medical institutions, and (3) inconvenience caused by long waiting time and side effects of medicine. In addition, the elderly with chronic disease realized the unmet healthcare as (1) the availability related to the desired medical institutions at the right time, (2) the affordability related to their economic capacity, (3) the effectiveness of the medical services they experienced, and (4) the appropriateness related to receiving medical services in a pleasant environment. Conclusion: The perception of unmet healthcare among the elderly with chronic disease is the result of interaction of multi-level and multi-dimensional factors related with their medical experience.

• 한국병원경영학회지
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• 제23권4호
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• pp.53-64
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• 2018

Purposes: The hospitals needs to generate a minimum profit, in order to perform its own role such as providing high-quality medical services. The demand for hospital management is increasing, as the social demands are diversified and the financial transparency is emphasized. The purpose of this study is to compare hospitals management based on Dupont Identity, by various hospital classification. Methodology: This study is based on '2016 Statistics for Hospital Management' provided by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute. The hospitals were classified according to the scope of care, the type of establishment, the location, and the number of beds. We analyzed the general and financial characteristics of over 337 hospitals using the method of Dupont Identity. Findings: Net profit margin (PM) has the biggest impact on return of equity (ROE). By the number of beds, general hospital with 160-299 beds have the highest return on equity (ROE). By location, hospitals in local municipalities have higher return on equity than hospitals in urban municipalities. According to the type of establishment, public hospitals have lower business performance, and although they invest more than private hospitals. Practical Implications: This study can inspire interest and provide understanding in hospital management and financial structure, by analyzing through an intuitive indicator named Dupont identity. It is possible to provide basic data for hospital management methods for each financial elements, in order to increase the profitability of hospitals.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제32권4호
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• pp.389-399
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• 2022

Background: This study aimed to analyze changes in medical utilization and cost before and after long-term care (LTC) implementation. Methods: We used the National Health Information Database from National Health Insurance Service. The participants were selected who had a new LTC grade (grade 1-5) for 2015. Medical utilization was analyzed before and after LTC implementation. Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series was conducted to evaluate the overall effect of the LTC implementation on medical costs. Results: The total number of participants was 41,726. A major reason for hospitalization in grade 1 was cerebrovascular diseases, and dementia was the top priority in grade 5. The proportion of hospitalization in grade 1 increased sharply before LTC implementation and then decreased. In grade 5, it increased before LTC implementation, but there was no significant difference after LTC implementation. As for medical cost, in grades 1 to 4, the total cost increased sharply before the LTC implementation, but thereafter, changes in level and trend tended to decrease statistically, and for grade 5, immediately after LTC implementation, the level change was decreasing, but thereafter, the trend change was increasing. Conclusion: Long-term care grades showed different medical utilization and cost changes. Long-term care beneficiaries would improve their quality of life by adequately resolving their medical needs by their grades.

• 대한지리학회지
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• 제50권3호
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• pp.325-338
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• 2015

원격진료는 정보통신기기를 활용해 의료정보를 주고받는 의료 혁신으로 인식되고 있지만, 사실상 오프라인의 여건에 따라 그 적용이 다양하게 나타난다. 예를 들어, 우리나라에서는 원격진료 시행의 기초 단위인 각 시군의 행정권에 따라 같은 의료권에 내에서도 원격진료는 차별적이다. 이에 본 연구에서는 강원도 원격진료 사례를 통해 원격진료의 지역적 차별성의 원인을 알아보았다. 더 나아가 이러한 차별성은 정보격차와 연관성이 있어 원격진료로 인해 유발되는 정보격차의 문제에 대해서도 고찰하였다. 본 연구의 주요 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 원격진료의 도입과 더불어 행정 인력의 증원, 실질적인 행정 책임자에 대한 경제적 보상, 원격진료 기기에 대한 교육 등이 제대로 마련되지 않아 이를 수용할 수 있는 지역만이 원격진료를 활용하고 있는 것으로 나타났다. 둘째, 원격진료의 차별적 활용은 지역의료의 최고 결정자라 할 수 있는 시장 혹은 군수, 그리고 보건소장의 관심 여부와 연결된다고 할 수 있다. 셋째, 공중보건의는 원격진료의 실질적인 수행자 역할을 하고 있지만, 원격진료에 실시에 반대하고 있는 의사회와의 관계, 실질적인 지역의료 여건의 개선 미비 등으로 원격진료에 대해 회의적 입장인 것으로 드러났다. 넷째, 원격진료 활용의 지역적 차별성으로 인해 나타나는 정보격차는 아직까지 가시적인 것은 아닐뿐더러, 다른 차원의 격차(의료격차, 지역격차 등)로 전이되지 않았다고 판단되나, 앞으로 원격진료를 기반으로 하는 다양한 서비스가 이루어질 것을 예상한다면 이에 대한 적절한 대책이 필요할 것으로 보인다.

• 보건의료생명과학 논문지
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• 제9권1호
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• pp.203-211
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• 2021

본 연구에서는 코로나19 유행 상황에서 대학생의 삶의 질에 영향을 줄 수 있는 요인으로 불안, 우울, 스트레스와 자아탄력성의 정도를 파악하고 이들의 상관관계를 분석하였다. 또한 자아탄력성, 스트레스 및 삶의 질에 대한 인과 관계와 매개효과를 분석함으로써 삶의 질을 개선하기 위해 필요한 대책들을 제안하고자 하였다. 변수들의 신뢰도 분석 후, 각 변인 간의 상관관계를 알아보기 위해 Pearson 상관계수를 산출한 결과 불안, 우울, 스트레스, 삶의 질 및 자아탄력성은 모두 유의미한 상관관계를 가지는 것으로 나타났다. 특히 자아탄력성, 스트레스 및 삶의 질에 대한 인과 관계와 매개효과를 확인한 결과, 자아탄력성이 삶의 질에 미치는 영향에서 스트레스가 완전 매개역할을 하는 것으로 나타났다. 본 연구가 코로나 상황에서의 스트레스 및 자아탄력성이 삶의 질 향상에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구의 근거자료로 활용되기를 바란다.