• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.103-141
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• 2017

The (Korean) Medical Services Act revised in 2009 introduces the accreditation of specialty hospital. When a hospital meets prescribed standards, passes a board review, and is accredited as a specialty hospital by the Minister of Health and Welfare, then it may use 'specialty hospital' in its name and certification mark of specialty hospital. The problem is that the (Korean) Fair Trade Commission and the (Korean) Ministry of Health and Welfare, both of which have authorities to regulate advertising in general and in health care service in turn, announced the guidelines to prohibit internet (portal) service providers to provide keyword search ads service using key-words such as 'specialty' or 'specialized in' for those who are not accredited by the Minister of Health and Welfare. In this article, whether these guidelines can be justified by the current regime and whether the current specialty hospital policy is agreeable would be examined. To do this, the legal nature of accreditation of specialty hospital, the limit of advertisement regulation, the law of keyword search ads, and the liability of internet service providers also would be analyzed.