• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.87-130
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• 2015

In a case in which National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) pays medical care expenses to a victim of a traffic accident resulting in injury or death and asks the assailant for compensation of its share in the medical care expenses, as the precedent treats the subrogation of a claim set by National Health Insurance Act the same as that set by Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, it draws the range of its compensation from the range of deduction, according to the principle of deduction after offsetting and acknowledges the compensation of all medical care expenses borne by the NHIC, within the amount of compensation claimed by the victim. However, both the National Health Insurance Act and the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act are laws that regulate social insurance, but medical care expenses in the National Health Insurance Act have a character of 'an underinsurance that fixes the ratio of indemnification,' while insurance benefit on the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act has a character of full insurance, or focuses on helping the insured that suffered an industrial accident lead a life, approximate to that in the past, regardless of the amount of damages according to its character of social insurance. Therefore, there is no reason to treat the subrogation of a claim on the National Health Insurance Act the same as that on the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act. Since the insured loses the right of claim acquired by the insurer by subrogation in return for receiving a receipt, there is no benefit from receiving insurance in the range. Thus, in a suit in which the insured seeks compensation for damages from the assailant, there is no room for the application of the legal principle of offset of profits and losses, and the range of subrogation of a claim or the amount of deduction from compensation should be decided by the contract between the persons directly involved or a related law. Therefore, it is not reasonable that the precedent draws the range of the NHIC's compensation from the principle of deduction after offsetting. To interpret Clause 1, Article 58 of the National Health Insurance Act that sets the range of the NHIC's compensation uniformly and systematically in combination with Clause 2 of the same article that sets the range of exemption, if the compensation is made first, it is reasonable to fix the range of the NHIC's compensation by multiplying the medical care expenses paid by the ratio of the assailant's liability. This is contrasted with the range of the Korea Labor Welfare Corporation's compensation which covers the total amount of the claim of the insured within the insurance benefit paid in the interpretation of Clauses 1 and 2, Article 87 of the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act. In the meantime, there are doubts about why the profit should be deducted from the amount of compensation claimed, though it is enough for the principle of deduction after offsetting that the precedent took as the premise in judging the range of the NHIC's compensation to deduct the profit made by the victim from the amount of damages, so as to achieve the goal of not attributing profit more than the amount of damage to a victim; whether it is reasonable to attribute all the profit made by the victim to the assailant, while the damages suffered by the victim are distributed fairly; and whether there is concrete validity in actual cases. Therefore, the legal principle of the precedent concerning the range of the NHIC's compensation and the legal principle of the precedent following the principle of deduction after offsetting should be reconsidered.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.3-45
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• 2019

Health insurance is the main instrument to protect the people against sickness. To examine the task of in the future it would be necessary to extract and understand the components formed in its formation and development, benefit related and normative characteristics of the health insurance itself. The health insurance oriented itself to the universal coverage at a law level. Paradoxically this worked positively for the universal development of the health insurance. The task of the health insurance is on the one hand universal, positive and open. On the other hand it has to shape type of allowed method, art and content of the medical treatments into the regulation to ensure the equal benefit as well as the financial stability. That is, the health insurance should check the aberrant medical treatment, and at the same time should be compensated for the their necessity and effectiveness. However there are always some structural differences between both requirements. This article aims to restate and analyse the development of the health insurance, based on the characteristics formed hitherto show the way to reform the health insurance. The problem to enhance the coverage of health insurance, its institutional as well as financial crisis, its peculiar governance would be handled.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.10 no.5
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• pp.349-356
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• 2010

The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of dental hygienists, who played a significant role in dental sector, about health care management and their needs for education in an attempt to pave the way for the development of a Dental Hygienist Coordination System(DHCS). The subjects were 156 dental hygienists at 85 dental clinics, who were selected in Gwangju based on the data released as of August 2008 by the Dental Association and public health centers in sampling region. A Questionnaire was conducted in person to gather survey data and SPSS 12.0 program was utilized to make a statistical analysis. This results findings suggested that a systematic curriculum should be developed by focusing on coordination theory and practice, counseling and educational practice, health insurance affairs and health insurance fee claim management.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.89-115
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• 2021

Korea's health care delivery system is based on the Medical law and the National Health Insurance Act. In order to efficiently operate limited medical resources, it is classified to use medical institutions according to the severity of the disease. The question is whether a tertiary care hospital can terminate a medical contract for a patient, if treatment for severe diseases has already been performed at a tertiary care hospital. In the case of termination of treatment, the Korean court has both a judgment that recognizes the right to terminate and a judgment that denies the termination. Among the U.S. rulings, there are rulings that order transfer to a skilled nursing facility or nursing home or home if acute treatment is no longer needed. Considering that medical resources are limited, it is necessary to acknowledge the right to terminate the contract of the medical institution when treatment by a medical institution is completed.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.11-40
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• 2012

National Health Insurance Act has been enforced all over the People as part of the effort to assure the minimum constitutional human worth and dignity in the aspect of the right to pursue health for preventing misfortune that comes to death without even a chance to be received treatment for illness or injury. Meanwhile auto insurance is compulsory in certain parts in order to promote benefits of everyday life and the rapid recovery of the damage caused by traffic accident when one have negligently driven a car which has become the necessities in daily life. Any injured driver in a traffic accident can be treated by National Health Insurance without getting an auto insurance in various circumstances, but Article 3 paragraph 2 of Traffic Accident Act don't allow exception of criminal punishment when he has driven a car without license, drunken, or tresspassing the centerline, etc. When the injury occured by his own certain negligence is judged to 'when he has intentionally or through gross negligence caused a criminal conduct or intentionally contributed to the occurrence of an accident' of National Health Insurance Act, insurance benefits can be restricted. Such a restriction could harm the right to pursue happiness and health of People by depriving the poor, who cannot afford to pay, of chances to get treatment. Here we will see benefit restriction by 'gross negligence' of National Health Insurance Act Article 48 paragraph 1, which has largest portion of such restriction. It is desirable to delete 'gross negligence' clause from above paragraph and to interpret 'when' clause restrictively for diminishing confusion of interpreting and guaranteeing the right of health.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.3-33
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• 2020

Telemedicine can be defined as "medical activities performed remotely by medical personnel using information and communication technology." So far, many scholars in Korea have understood that only telemedicine between medical personnel is allowed and telemedicine between medical personnel and patients is prohibited based on Article 34 of Medical Service Act. However, Article 34 is only a restriction on the performing place of medical profession, not a prohibition on telemedicine itself. And, there are no regulations prohibiting telemedicine under the korean medical law. So, it is difficult to say that telemedicine is generally prohibited under the korean medical law, apart from the health insurance medical treatment benefit standards. However, there is controversy in interpretation regarding the meaning of "direct diagnosis" in Articles 17 and 17-2 of Medical Service Act. The Constitutional Court of Korea interpreted this as "face-to-face diagnosis", while the Supreme Court of Korea interpreted it as "self diagnosis". In light of the dictionary meaning of 'direct' and the interpretation of related medical law regulations, I think the Supreme Court's interpretation is valid. Although "direct diagnosis" does not mean "face-to-face diagnosis", the concept of "diagnosis" implies "principle of face-to-face diagnosis". In addition, "non-face-to-face diagnosis" are only allowed to supplement "face-to-face diagnosis", so the problems caused by "non-face-to-face diagnosis" can be fully overcome. In the end, the limit of telemedicine is how faithful the diagnosis was.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.207-254
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• 2018

The major court rulings delivered in 2017 include the ruling that separated the legal character of denture production agreement signed together with medical care agreement and found a subcontracting dimension in the former, and the ruling that overcame the limitations of the theory of entire appearance of a fetus as discussed in civil law by using the legal principle of insurance which suggests that unborn child insurance takes effect after the contract is signed and the first installment of the premium is paid in. As more court rulings find the medical specialists responsible for accidents and injuries from drugs, some argue that medication counseling by the druggist who makes and dispenses drugs should be upgraded. And with respect to a court ruling that denied the hospital's responsibility for an infection-involving accident even if there were no records on specific measures taken in infection management, some criticized the court for being too conservative in recognizing responsibilities. And with respect to infectious disease management, some criticized the court for its interpretation and application of the facts in the direction of denying the negligence. In addition, some claimed that it is necessary to establish institutional system for hospital infection control and its aid for victims, and to improve the system including the reversal of the burden of proof given the special nature of hospital infections. A number of rulings on the duty to disclose included the one which stated that the specific matter did not require a doctor's explanation as it was explained or the specific medical service would have been performed even if no explanation had been given. There was a greatly controversial ruling over the scope of indemnification, which accepted the occurrence of multiple scars and deformation as disorders while regarding breast as a thoracic organ. And a Supreme Court ruling over interpreting Medical Service Act was criticized as overstepping the boundary allowed in the law.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.57-90
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• 2021

Telehealth has been a hotly debated health policy issue in South Korea, mostly because the medical community - especially primary care practitioners - have strongly opposed it. As a result, telehealth has remained forbidden under law. However, the temporary permission of telehealth in Korea, as well as its exploding use in other countries, all in response to COVID-19, is re-igniting the discussion on telehealth in Korea. This article explores general legal issues that may arise if and when telehealth is fully implemented in Korea. The article's analysis shows that legislative changes are necessary to allow reimbursement of telehealth as well as remote purchase of medicine. The article also advocates introducing new evidentiary rules to curtail covert recording of telehealth sessions. On the other hand, additional legislation is probably not necessary to address the medical liability of physicians practicing telehealth or to adress much-discussed privacy issues. The existing laws in those domains are already robust enough to operate without much difficulty in the context of telehealth too.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.81-109
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• 2021

This paper review about the relationship between the prohibition against medical refusal and the principle of private autonomy in medical contracts. The obligation to this Prohibition in Medical Law does not restrict the liberty of contracting a medical contract. On the other hand, the prohibition limits the freedom to terminate medical contracts. Medical contracts can be terminated if the trust between doctors and patients is vanished. However certain restrictions should be placed on termination of the medical contract, because termination of the contract should not be detrimental to patients' health. According to the current medical law the medical contract is to be enforced in principle and can be revoked only with justifiable reason. At the Civil Code on Medical Contracts the freedom to terminate the medical contract is permitted, but this paper suggests the restrictions of the revocation under certain conditions. The Criminal Punishment Regulations against medical refusal should be removed. Refusal the provide medical service should be regulated by administrative sanctions under the National Health Insurance Act's obligation.

• Journal of Oral Medicine and Pain
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.257-268
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• 2005

It is recently suggested in Korea that Resource-Based Relative Value Scale (RBRVS) is an alternative plan of Korean Dental Fee Schedule which has been operated on a fee-for-service basis since the introduction of the national health insurance program in 1977. RBRVS applicable to diagnosis and treatment for temporomandibular disorders (TMD), a common cause of orofacial pain, is needed to be estimated in Korea and the establishment of the standard terminology of dental procedures for TMD should be preceded. The purposes of this study were to develop a new classification system of health care service items for TMD and to investigate time needed for each item, which enables RBRVS to be estimated prior to establishment the payment system of health care services for TMD. The dental service items for TMD in this study were categorized through Delphi process which 10 TMD specialists were participated in and the time needed for each service item was investigated by work sampling and time study method with a stopwatch. The results of this study demonstrated the new classification system of dental services for TMD comprising 151 service items and exhibited the average time for each items ranging from 7.22 min for cold laser therapy to 171.71 min for direct fabrication of anterior repositioning splint. Conclusively, it is suggested that the classification system for TMD developed in this study, considering specific characteristics on basis of resources for health care service of dental procedures, should be helpful to estimate payment level for each service item.