• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.4 no.2
• /
• pp.77-110
• /
• 1994

This study is an empiriacl analysis of effects of government intervention on the health care delivery system in Korea. The purposes of this study are to find out the effects of government intervention on the per capita national health expenditure(per capita NHE), crude mortality rate(CMR), and institutional efficiency. Here, the institutional efficiency is defined as a formula shown below: log$\frac{100-curde mortality rate }{per capita NHE}$$\times$100. The formula indicates that the instiutional efficiency increases if the CMR and/or per capita NHE goes down. In the meantime the government intervention is measured by six independent variables: I) the degree of social developments, ii) the numberr of physicians per 100, 000 population, iii) the proportion of specialists among the total physicians, iv) the proportion of public expenditure among the NHE, v) the proportion of public beds to the total number of beds, vi) the proportion of physicians working at the public sector to the total number of physicians. In the above six independent variables iv), v) and vi) are the ones that reflect the degree of government intervention. In actual calculation, the two independent variables v) and vi) are integrated into a new variable based on one to one correspondence. The materials used are the time-series data from 1970 through 1990 in Korea. A path analysis and the time-series regression analysis were adopted to estimate and examine the causal relationship between variables involved. And decomposition of the effect of causal relationship is made to find net effect, direct and indirect effect. The major findings are as follows; 1. The effect of public expenditure, number of physicians per 100, 000 population, the proportion of specialists among the total physicians and social development shows a positive relationship with per capita NHE. Only if the government intervention would be counted, the effects of the number of physicians and the proportion of specialists succeed in containing per capita NHE. 2. In additionn to the above four variables, one additional variable, per capita NHE, was also responsible for the reduction of CMR. The factor of social development found to be the most potent predictor of the CMR reduction. However, the CMR reduction due to government intervention was negligible. 3. Meanwhile, the above four variables were found to was have negative effects on the institutional efficiency. The reverse is true when the government intervention is counted. For example, the number of physicians and the proportion of specialists have played a positive role in raising institutional efficiency via goverment intervention. This comes from the factual effect that the increment of institutional efficiency via the reduction of per capita NHE is bigger than via the reduction of CMR.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.22 no.1
• /
• pp.29-48
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this study is to analyze medical expenses by decedents in their last year of life and compare them with those by survivors during the year 2008. This study is conducted firstly in Korea, except some studies focusing on medical cost of decedents from specific diseases. To study this, national health insurance(NHI) claims data was used with medicaid claims data. The study group(decedents) was selected from the insurance entitlement file who were dropped out from January to December of 2008. The control group(survivors) was selected from the entitlement file by stratified sampling with keeping age-sex composition of the study group. The medical expenses of decedents during one year before death were measured and compared with those of survivors by sex and age. And the medical expenses were analyzed by causes of death, and also the expenses were examined by each item of medical services. On average, the medical expense amounted to 11 million Korean Won per decedent during their last year of life in 2008. The medical expense per decedent was 9.3 higher than that of survivor. The death-related expense of under the age 35 was about 16 million Won, compared with 4 million Won in the case of over the age 95, in average. The death-related expense is higher in younger ages. This means that more medical resources are put in to save life in younger ages. Total death-related expenditure took 8.3 percent in total NHI expenditures. Of the death-related medical expenses, the largest one was injection-related cost which shares twenty five percent, and the second largest one was hospitalization charges, and then the third one was surgery cost. The results of this study suggested that we should pay attention to the medical expenses in the last of year of life when we study health care expenditure in Korea. In addition, we have to deliberate health care policy to cope with medical expenditures before death in more efficient way.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.44-64
• /
• 2004

As of 1 July 2000 a big reform was introduced into the Korean health care system: the separation between prescribing and dispensing of drugs (SPD reform). There was, however, a big financial stake associated with pharmaceuticals, particularly before the reform, because physicians as well as pharmacists were allowed to purchase drugs at much lower costs than the insurance reimbursement. In this respect, this study focuses on the change in income and profit of both doctor's clinics and pharmacies after the reform. Data from National Health and Nutritional Survey by the ministry of health and welfare were used to estimate the income or expenditure that are financed by out-of-pocket payment of the patients, while national health insurance data etc. were used for the estimation of the income or expenditure that is financed by insurers. Average annual income per doctor's clinic increased from 299 million won to 338 million won for the three years between 1998 and 2001, whereas average annual income per pharmacy increased enormously from 60 million won to 305 million won for the same period. Average annual 'profit' increase per each doctor's clinic caused by the reform itself was estimated to range from 50 to 83 million won, while that per each pharmacy, from 23 to 87 million won. In sum, while both doctor's clinics and pharmacies are beneficiaries of the SPD reform, its positive impact is particularly prominent on the latter.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.13 no.4
• /
• pp.101-118
• /
• 2008

Japanese national health expenditure was 8.0% of GDP in 2004, and it was lower than average of OECD countries. But it has increased rapidly in recent years. Japan has relatively many acute care beds and high-price medical equipments, and the average length of stay is long. Japanese government is trying healthcare reform to contain healthcare expenditure, increase the efficiency of management and improve the quality of healthcare. As healthcare policies for hospitals such as DPC (Diagnosis Procedure Combination) for acute care beds, reduction of long-term care beds, and functional differentiation and liaison among healthcare institutions are implemented, the number of hospitals in financial difficulties is increasing. The serious situation urges hospitals to adapt to changes and search new directions of management. They need to establish and implement appropriate positioning strategy, and increase management efficiencies. Korean healthcare system has similarities with Japanese in many aspects. The recent reform and changes in Japanese healthcare system and hospitals give suggestions to Korean hospitals as to how they can prepare for environmental changes and improve management.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.305-314
• /
• 2016

Background: The purpose of this study is to examine the characteristics of and factors associated with long-term care (LTC) utilization under public long-term care insurance (LTCI) among end-of-life older adults in Korea. Methods: Using a 5% sample of older people aged 65 or older and their health and LTC insurance data, two-part model analyses were conducted. We compared LTC uses and their determinants during the last year of life among decedents in the year 2010 with those of survivors. We also compared the medical uses of the same sample with their LTC uses. Results: The end-of-life elderly were more likely to use LTC, and their expenditure on LTC was higher than their counterparts. Whether or not older people used LTC during their last year of life was significantly affected by age, sex, health insurance, household income, and living alone; however, LTC costs of the decedents were only affected by functional status, which may have been due to the reimbursement scheme of the current LTCI, which is mainly based on functional dependency level. For the survivors, having chronic diseases significantly increased the likelihood of LTC use, which was not the case for the decedents. End-of-life elderly with relatively low social economic status were more likely to use the LTC other than medical services, while the health conditions affected their medical uses most significantly. Conclusion: The study findings provide key information for predicting demand related to the increasing LTC needs of Korean older people at the end of life.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.44-60
• /
• 2011

Background : Surgical site infection(SSI) is one of the important nosocomial infections with pneumonia, urinary tract infection. SSI increases mortality, morbidity, length of stay, and costs for postoperative patients. The purpose of this study was to estimate length of stay(LOS) and health care costs from SSI using the large observational data. The ultimate objective was to show the effect of prevention of SSI. Method : This study used antibiotic prophylaxis evaluation data and claims data of the HIRA(Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service). The study population included 18,361 patients who underwent gastric surgery, endoscopic cholecystectomy, colon surgery, hysterectomy, cesarean section in nationwide hospitals from August to October 2007. SSI group and non-SSI group were matched according to propensity score resulted from logistic regression. The paired t-test was used to compare the difference of the LOS and health care costs between SSI group and non-SSI group. Results : The 598 cases of SSI were detected of total subjects, and the crude SSI rate was 3.3%. For each surgery, SSI rates were 5.5% for gastric surgery, 4.7% for cholecystectomy, 6.6% for colon surgery, 2.6% for hysterectomy, and 1.6% for cesarean section. The 596 cases of SSI and the 596 cases of non-SSI were matched by propensity score. The LOS of SSI group was longer than that of non-SSI group, and the difference was statistically significant. Health care costs of SSI group was more than that of non-SSI group which was significant. Conclusions : SSI increased apparently the LOS and healthcare costs. The economic loss might affect the cost of national healthcare as well as patients and hospitals. This study provided the evidence that the healthcare expenditure could be reduced by preventing SSI.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.49-76
• /
• 1994

Small area variations in health care utilization have long been studied as an important issue related to boto cost containment and quality assurance. This study was conducted to investigate if variations in hospital services across small geographic areas in Korea existed. The claims data of the fiscal year 1992 obtained from the regional health insurance societies were used for the study. Main findings of the research can be summarized as follows : 1. Extremal Quotients(EQ) of hospital expenditure per capita and hospital days per capita varied among diagnosis types. The EQ ranged from 2.05(cataract) to 41.67(pneumonia) in hospital expenditure per capita and from 1.86(cataract) to 45.89(pneumonia) in hospital days per capita. The diagnosis groups which showed high variation were pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis, fracture of rib, and acute bronchitis. Those which showed low variation were acute appendicitis and cataract. 2. The EQ level of admission rate was different in terms of diagnosis types, ranging from 2.57(catarct) to 44.45(pneumonia). The variations were high in medical disorders such as pneumonia, oephalo-pelvic disproportion, gastritis and duodenitis and acute bronchitis, while relatively low in surgical conditions such as acute appendicitis and cataract. 3. As an indicator of service intensity, the EQ of expenditure per admission ranged from 1.67(acute appendicitis) to 31.27(essential hypertension). The diagnoses which had high variation were essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, whereas those which had low variation were cephalopelvic disproportion and acute appendicitis. With regard to hospital days per admission, the EQ ranged from 1.55(acute appendicitis) to 28.13(gastric ulcer) by diagnosis types. The diagnosis groups with showed high variation were gastric ulcer, essential hypertension, and acute bronchitis, whereas those with low variation were cephalo-pelvic disproportion, intervertebral disc disorders, and acute appendicitis. Both the expenditure and hospital days per admission showed lewwer variations than the expenditure per capita, hospital days per capita and admission rate. 4. Comparing patterns of variation in utilization indices, diagnoses such as essential hypertension, gastric ulcer, fracture of rib showed higher variations in expenditure per admission than in admission rates, whereas diagnoses such as pneumonia, cephalo-pelvic disproportion and gastric ulcer showed higher variations in admission rate than expenditure per admission. These findings suggest that wide variations existed in several diagnoses groups across small areas in Korea. Further research should be performed to investigate factors related to small area variations including provider behavior.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.1-18
• /
• 2010

This article examines social determinants of population health in OECD countries, where life years, infant mortality, and PYLL are used as proxy variables of health. The unit of analysis is a country which is the OECD affiliate. A panel regression estimation is chosen as a method, using OECD Health Data. The results are: the increasing national health expenditure affected positively to improve population health. Education was rather a significant determinant of health than income level. The government direct investment for public health did not contribute positively to enhance population health. The expansion of health care coverage was working positively for improving health, but with a time lag. The supply of doctors was a most influential determinant of health. In case of Korea, the coverage expansion of health care was the most important determinant of health. The supply of doctors was, however, not a positive factor for better health, which is different result with the case of OECD countries.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.3 no.1
• /
• pp.238-260
• /
• 1998

This article describes the theoretical foundations of government policy for hospitals in terms of correcting market failure and enhancing equity. It then discusses the characteristics that desirable payment systems should have, and the effects of the DRG-based prospective payment system on hospital behavior, its financial performance, hospital industry, and health care expenditure. The rationales and impacts of other public policies for hospitals such as antitrust and fair trade regulation, dissemination of practice guidelines and hospital mortality information, regulation of hospital capital investment, and tax policy are also discussed.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.135-159
• /
• 2010

The purpose of the study was to investigate the characteristics and economic status of deficit households compared to surplus households. Data from The Household Income and Expenditure Survey 2005 by NSO and 50, 207 salary/wage earners' households were used for the analysis. The statistical methods used were GLM, logit, and cluster analyses. The analysis results showed that 25.3 percent of the households were deficit households. Approximately half of the lowest 20% income group were deficit households. Income deficit households earned 1, 273 thousand less than that of surplus households, whereas consumption of deficit households was 1, 006 thousand more than that of surplus households. The average propensity of consumption of deficit households was 142.1. According to the logit analysis, factors contributing to the probability of belonging to a deficit household included income level, household size, age and educational level, occupation, homeownership, car ownership, and wife's employment status. Deficit households were classified into 5 types: 1) health care expenditure-dominated group, 2) housing expenditure-dominated group, 3) education expenditure-dominated group, 4) money transfer-dominated group, and 5) overall-overconsumption group. The overall-overconsumption group was the largest group of all at 58.5%. It was found that for all five groups, the changes in household size, income group, home ownership, and occupation of the individual were variables that influenced the probability of belonging to a certain group.