• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.382-393
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• 2019

The right to petition is a classical right of the people in constitutional states, and in Korea, it is a statutory right in the Constitution, the National Assembly Law, the Petition Law, and the Local Autonomy Act. The healthcare community first made a successful petition to the National Assembly when it achieved the amendment of the Government Organization Act through a petition to the National Assembly for the independence of the Ministry of Health, and this achievement served as the basis for further petitions. Since then, the healthcare community has successfully achieved the enactment and amendment of related occupational laws through National Assembly petitions, such as the amendment of Article 41, Paragraph 7 of the former Medical Insurance Act (Korean Medical Association, 14th Assembly), enactment of the Dental Health Act (Korean Dental Association, 15th Assembly), and amendment of the Health Functional Foods Act (Korea Pharmaceutical Association, 16th Assembly). Its petition accomplishment rate is higher than the total petition accomplishment rate of the Health and Welfare Committee of the National Assembly. However, along with the overall decrease in the number of National Assembly petitions, the Korean Medical Association and Korea Pharmaceutical Association have not achieved any results through petitioning since the 16th Assembly (June 2000), and the Korean Hospital Association and Korean Nurses Association have not achieved any results through petitioning since the 17th Assembly (April 2004). Furthermore, no National Assembly petitions have been made at all for 5 years (2014-2018). The Korean Medical Association and Korea Pharmaceutical Association previously showed a high petition accomplishment rate through their accumulated experience with National Assembly petitions and vigorous policy assistance from doctors/pharmacists/nurses turned lawmakers. More specifically, healthcare organizations have achieved results by actively conducting organized activities with the National Assembly, as implemented by a national assembly director and employees, and in case of petitions for legislation, each group has established infrastructure for reviewing the relevant laws by appointing a legislative director, as well as a legal advisor and advisory counsel. Although the organization that has submitted the most petitions to the National Assembly is the Korean Hospital Association, the group with the highest petition success rate is the Korean Medical Association, which may be linked to the relatively high proportion of doctors who have become lawmakers. Furthermore, the fact that other healthcare organizations were highly interested in petitioning the National Assembly has had major implications for the petition activities of healthcare organizations.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.16-25
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• 2019

Purpose:The healthcare system of South Korea is at the extreme of the dispersed system. Few regulations limit patients from directly visiting higher-level medical institutions for primary care sensitive conditions. As a result, similar to local clinics, general and tertiary teaching hospitals also provide diverse primary care services. Our study aimed to examine the general public's perceptions of their primary care performance. Methods: Face-to-face surveys were conducted with 1000 adults who were living in South Korea with the aid of a questionnaire that included the Korean Primary Care Assessment Tool (KPCAT). The KPCAT consists of five domains, which are the main indicators of primary care performance: first contact, comprehensiveness, coordination, personalized care, and family/community orientation. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc tests were used to compare the KPCAT scores across the three types of medical institutions. Results: Domain-wise analyses revealed two different patterns. With regard to first contact and its subdomains, the highest and lowest scores emerged for local clinics and tertiary teaching hospitals, respectively. However, the other four domain scores were significantly lower for local clinics than for the other two types of medical institutions. Conclusions: Local clinics were perceived to be medical institutions that are responsible for providing primary care. However, the general public perceived only one domain of their primary care to be superior to that of the other two types of medical institutions: first contact. National efforts should be taken to strengthen their other four domains of primary care by training their workforce and providing appropriate incentives.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.155-182
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• 1998

There exists a remarkable differences in use of MRI scanning among income classes. The poor can hardly utilize it. This is because, among high cost technnologies, MRI is the only equipment not covered under health insurance benefits in Korea. This study was designed 1) to reveal the status of nation-wide MRI installation, customary charges and per unit annual scanning performance, and 2) to analyse factors influencing the above variables. The data for this study came from "MRI Prevalence Survey" conducted by the National Federation of Medcial Insurance(NFMI) in 1997, and were analyzed through SAS packages for T-test, analysis of variance and stepwise multiple regression. Data were collected from 188 hospitals equipped with MRI scanners. Major findings are summarized as follows : The number of MRI scanners has increased from 69 in 994 to 158 in 1996(2.3 times) while per unit annual scanning performance has risen by 11.2% from 2,173 cases in 1994 to 2,417 cases in 1996. Such a rapid increase was made possible mainly due to the inclusion of CT scanning under the health insurance benefit package. The customary charges for MRI scanning with or without contrast media, on average, amounted to 484,000 Won and 402,000 Won, respectively, with the percentile increase of 17.8% and 8.1% each during the same time. Korea ranks the third worldwidely in terms of number of MRI installations, 4.8 scanners per one million persons, only next to Japan and United States. Geographical variation of MRI, however, was rather high, 7.91 unit, in Cheju area compared to 1.82 in Kyongnam area. Variations of customary charges of MRI scanning can be explained as much as by 44.8% by both the total amount of claims to NFMI and geographical variable. The charges were more likely to be higher in metropolitan areas like Seoul and in hospitals with a bigger amount of claims. While those of per unit annual scanning performance can be explained as much as by 30.7% by both MRI installation cost and level of MRI-installed organizations. Per capital scannig performance was higher in tertiary hospitals and hospitals equipped with more expensive scanners than hospitals with less expensive scanners. Two measures are called for the remedying the existing excessive abundance in MRI units in korea : One is to set a ceiling of MRI units in an area like a province or a metropolitan district. The other is to establish a committee on introduction of high cost technologies for reviewing its effective use.ctive use.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.59-75
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• 2019

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to examine the current status of Korean medicine health technology assessment and explore realistic plans to activate it. Methods: We investigated all the applications for new health technology assessment related to Korean medicine from 2007 to 2016. The several expert meetings were held to draw out the barriers and improvement strategies of the new health technology assessment of Korean medicine field. Results: There were 31 cases in total except for duplications or reapplies falling into 3 main types. First, 19 of them were to try to enter a medical market and be covered by National Health Insurance. Eight cases were to apply western medicine technology as new health technology in Korean medicine area. The rest was 4 cases, which were totally not appropriate for the purpose of new health technology assessment system. According to the expert opinion, the obstacles of activation in new health technology assessment of Korean medicine were application of unstandardized technology, lack of understanding and experience, lack of clinical trial supporting system for Korean medicine, lack of committee members within the nHTA(new Health Technology Assessment) review board, ambiguous definition of medical practice and sharp conflict between western medicine and Korean medicine. Conclusions: Several suggestions were derived. First of all, to activate Korean medicine in the nHTA system, the existing system should be used sufficiently, and multifaceted efforts are needed to upgrade the system, if necessary. Also, self-help efforts, Korean medicine clinical trial supporting system and increasing R&D investment, establishing extra-committee for Korean medicine in nHTA could be needed. Finally, long-term strategy for improving collaboration between Korean medicine and western medicine should be considered.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.10 no.11
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• pp.493-502
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• 2012

This study aimed to determine the management and environmental factors affecting medical expense reduction. For analysis, medical expenses were divided into hospitalization expenses and outpatient treatment expenses, and the rate of medical expense reduction was classified into initial and final reduction rates. Data were collected through a direct survey among 205 directors of independent health insurance review departments of hospital-level medical institutions in Korea. The results of the study are discussed below: In the analysis, differences in the initial and final reduction rates of hospitalization expenses and outpatient treatment expenses were compared. The results showed that, in hospitalization expenses, the initial and final reduction rates were both significantly affected by the following management factors: number of beds, number of departments, number of personnel reviewing health insurance cases, and total number of employees. Further, in outpatient treatment expenses, the initial and final reduction rates were both affected significantly by the following management factors: management of medical records, number of beds, number of departments, number of personnel reviewing health insurance, and total number of employees. The management factors significantly affecting both the initial and final reduction rates were higher number of beds for hospitalization expenses and electronic medical record management for outpatient treatment expenses. The environmental factors significantly affecting both the initial and final reduction rates of hospitalization expenses were a highly cooperative work environment, better implementation of indicator management systems, and overtime pay. Better implementation of indicator management system and a committee for handling medical expenses had significant effects on the initial reduction rate for outpatient treatment expenses. A highly cooperative work environment, better implementation of indicator management system, and overtime pay had significant effects on the final reduction rate for outpatient treatment expenses.

• Korean Journal of Health Education and Promotion
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.83-97
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• 1983

The present study is to provide information for the improvement of school health services through research on the current condition of its organization and practice in universities, colleges and junior colleges. The scope of this study is consisted of four components including health organizations/units, school health services, environmental sanitation and health education for the 30 universities, the 20 colleges and the 32 junior colleges in Korea. The major findings are summarized as follows: (1) Among the sampled schools, around 73% of them have the health service organization/unit. When we break down health service organization/unit into the types by the level of school, around 73% of the universities have formal organization called "health center" and 20.0% of them have an informal organization called "health room". For the colleges level, 30.0% of them have the "health center" and 40.0% of them have the "health room". The figure of junior colleges is a quite different from universities and colleges, 56.3% of junior colleges have the "health room" only but the other have no service organization at all. (2) It was found that only 22.0% of 82 schools have the health committee for the school health services. It might be necessary to have a kind of expert committee to establish an annual health service program, budget and health policy in the school. (3) Approximately 29% of those schools having formal health organizations/units appointed directors as a medical persons. 13.4% of the sampled schools are appointed doctors (including the dentists) at health service organization/unit, 9.8% are appointed pharmacist and 65.9% are appointed nurses. Therefore, the data imply that the school health services are depending mainly on nurses. (4) The major activities of school health services are covering primary medical care (84.1%), health counseling (72.0%), physical examination (68.3%), vaccination (58.5%), tuberculosis control (54.9%), parasite control (29.3%) and dental health case(9.8%). Also 69.5% of the schools have the program on the environmental sanitation and the health education program. (5) In regard to health budget taking account of 34 schools, approximately 92% of them have less than 5,000 won per students and only 8.8% of them have more 10,000 won per students. At the average health budget per students is 4089.8 won in universities, 1617.1 won in colleges and 475.0 won in junior colleges. (6) The students enjoy the benifit of medical insurance at 11.0% of 82 schools surveyed. They are all universities. (7) The study found that 56 universities, colleges and junior colleges provide the annual physical examination. Only 21.4% of them have provided it for all students and school employees. (8) 64.3% of the 56 schools surveyed keep a record of the regular physical examinations. Records must be utilized as the basic data for the evaluation of the student's health condition and so the individual student is encouraged to take care of his own health. (9) At the 59 schools which practice health counseling, the main concerns of the counsellees are venereal disease, tuberculosis and psychoneurosis. This shows the need to practice health education in the area of preventive medicine. (10) 69.5% of the 82 universities, colleges and junior colleges surveyed are concerned with supervision of the environmental sanitation in their school, but non-professionals are in charge at 70.1% of them. This indicates negligence in environmental sanitation. (11) 53.7% of the 82 schools responded that they have no special instructive measure for the students' health and 54.9% are found to be negative in the use of a health education method. This reveals a problem. They are not positive to the recognition of their function as the initiative organization for the students' health. (12) The supplementary education for the faculty of the school health services is executed only at 8.5% of all the schools surveyed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.163-177
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• 2024

Background: This study aims to examine changes in fraudulent claim counts and total reimbursements before and after enhancements in counterfeit claim controls and monitoring of provider claim patterns under the "Proactive self-audit pilot program of fraudulent claims." Methods: This study used the claims data and hospital information (July 2021-February 2022) of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The data was collected from 1,129 hospitals assigned to the pilot program, selected from the providers who filed a claim for reimbursement for intravenous injections. Paired and independent t-tests, along with regression analysis, were utilized to analyze changing patterns and factors influencing claim behaviors. Results: This program led to a reduction in the number of fraudulent claims and the total amount of reimbursements across all levels of hospitals in the experimental groups (except for physicians below 40 years old). In the control group, general hospitals and hospitals demonstrated some significant decreases based on the duration since opening, while clinics showed significant reductions in specified subjects. Additionally, a notable increase was observed among male physicians over the age of 50 years. Overall, claims and reimbursements significantly declined after the intervention. Furthermore, a positive correlation was found between hospital opening duration and claim numbers, suggesting longer-established hospitals were more likely to file claims. Conclusion: The results indicate that the pilot program successfully encouraged providers to autonomously minimize fraudulent claims. Therefore, it is advised to extend further support, including promotional activities, training, seminars, and continuous monitoring, to nonparticipating hospitals to facilitate independent improvements in their claim practices.