• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.31-50
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• 2007

This study was carried out to analyze the present condition of high-price medical technologies in South Korea and to compare it with OECD countries. This study included 10 high-price medical equipments and used medical equipment registry data of Health Insurance Review Agency. The major findings of this study are as follows; Firstly, The number and growth of high-price medical equipments in South Korea is much higher than those in other OECD countries. There are many of high-price medical equipments even in clinics. Secondly, the percentage of old poor-quality medical equipments is very high, especially in clinics. This is because of high-price of medical equipments. The results of this study implicated that there is high possibility of inappropriate use of high-price medical technologies. This may result in the increase of health expenditure; therefore, there should be a kind of regulation policy to control amount and quality of medical equipment.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.71-97
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• 2004

This study conducted a comparative analysis of awareness level of review standards, continuing education, and awareness about the need for speciality and educational courses in order to improve quality of Korean health insurance review work and to present directions for policies of personnel development and continuing education to smoothly perform hospital's insurance claim work and Agency's review work. The analysis unit of the study is individuals, and survey was conducted among hospital's claim officers and Agency' review officers by distributing questionnaires. The major results of the study are as follows: First, it is found that hospital's claim officers and Agency's review officers have conflicting awareness about review standards; more Agency's review officers think that current review standards are universal and reasonable, while more hospital's claim officers believe that they need to be revised. Especially, hospital's claim officers replied that it is possible that review results can differ according to government's policies. Second, there is no significant difference between the two groups in the opinion that there are individual differences in awareness level of review standard. In particular, both groups share the opinion that review results can differ according to officer's interpretation of review standards. Third, Both review officer groups feel the need for further training and continuing education. Fourth, there is no difference between the two groups in the opinion that both groups members should be educated in review related educational institutions. However, while 81.5% of Agency's review officers the education should be offered at the Agency, only 45.2% of hospital's claim officers agreed to it. Fifth, both review personnel do not show any difference in awareness of needed experience to successfully perform review work; both groups replied that three to four years experience is necessary to smoothly perform claim work and review work. This study was tried in order to search for directions to improve Korean insurance review work in quality rather than to explore characteristics themselves of individual factors. In this sense, this study presupposed an intention that the educational subjects for further training and continuing education for the two groups should be the same in order to narrow the awareness gap between hospital's claim officers and Agency's review officers. Thus, this study suggests that it is desirable to offer beginner courses at junior colleges or in undergraduate courses and advanced courses in professional graduate school for six to twelve months. In that a comparison of awareness level of hospital's claim officers and Agency's review officers who are actually in practice should precede appropriate presentation of directions for the qualitative improvement of insurance review work in Korea, the significance of this study lies in comparatively analyzing the awareness level of hospital's claim officers and Agency's review officers and in presenting the establishment of future further training and continuing education.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.30-38
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• 2017

Background: This study aims to analyze the behavioral changes of healthcare providers and influencing factors after the reviewer unification of auto insurance medical benefit claims by an independent review agency. Methods: The comparison data were collected from the second half of 2013 and the same period of 2014. The key indicators are the number of admission days, the number of outpatient visits, inpatient ratio, inpatient medical expenses, and outpatient medical expenses. Results: Four indicators (number of admission days, number of outpatient visits, inpatient ratio, and outpatient medical expenses) showed statistically significant drops, while one indicator (inpatient medical expenses) showed no significant change. Conclusion: The reviewer unification of auto insurance medical benefit claims by an independent review agency showed significant reduction in cost and patient days.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.219-268
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• 2006

In July 1989, Korea had achieved the national medical insurance system comprehensively covering the whole population since its inception of 12 years before, and subsequently the plural medical insurers had integrated to the unique health insurer system in July 2000. But there yet remain some problems to be improved under low contributions rates and poor benefit packages, especially the shortage of assuring beneficiaries' rights. The Health Insurance Appeal System is composed of a two-tiered system of committee. The Formal Objection Committees built in the National Health Insurance Corporation and in the Health Insurance Review Agency respectively examine the formal objections to the decisions of the Corporation, or the Review Agency. And the Dispute Mediation Committee built under the command of the Minister of Health and Welfare reviews the protests against the decisions on the formal objections by each Formal Objection Committee. To cope with the appellant in relation to the administration on the qualification of the insureds, contributions, and insurance benefits etc, is found to be unsatisfactory. There's the reason of poor function on right-relief caused by the loose composition of the Appeal Committee, the deficit of people's recognition and P.R., the lack of professional manpower and the Committee's independency, and time lag in making decisions and so on. Consequently the Appeal System should be improved to secure the rights-relief function, to empower the professionalism of the Appeal Committee, to strengthen P.R. for the beneficiaries, to build up the staff's proficiency through training, and to develop the quality of administrative services.

• 대한예방의학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.358-358
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• 2005

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.17-40
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• 2006

With the prospect of rapidly growing health insurance expenditures, particularly spending for ambulatory care, the introduction of a case-based payment method is discussed as an alternative to the current fee-for-service based method. A system to measure case mixes of providers is a core component of such payment systems. The objective of this study were to develop a classification system for ambulatory care, Korean Ambulatory Patient Group (KAPG) based on the U.S. APG version 2.0 and to evaluate the classification accuracy of the system. A database of 64,258,386 records was constructed from insurance claims submitted to the Health Insurance Review Agency (HIRA) during three months from August 2002. A total of 41,347,307 records with a single visit was used for the development and 7% random sample of the database was used for the evaluation. Additional groups were defined to include both physician and hospital fees in the classification, age splits were added to classify the entire population as well as the population older than 65, and the definition of medical groups used by the HIRA was adopted. The variance reduction in charges achieved by KAPGs was computed to evaluate the accuracy of classification. A total of 474 KAPGs was defined compare to 290 groups in the U.S. APG. The variance reduction for charges of all visits ranged from 20% to 37% depending on the type of provider, and ranged from 22% to 42% for non-outliers, that were better than those achieved by the system currently used by the .HIRA for its internal review purpose. Although further study is required to improve the classification for complicated care in larger hospitals, the results indicated that KAPGs could be used for better management of costs for ambulatory care.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.120-127
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• 2014

Background: Since December 2010, online computerized prospective drug utilization review (pDUR) has been implemented in Korea. pDUR involves the review of each prescription before the medication is dispensed to the individual patient. The pDUR is performed electronically by Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service (HIRA), which is a Korean governmental agency, and then HIRA provides medical institutions and pharmacies with information that can be helpful to them in preventing potential drug problems such as drug/drug interactions or ingredient duplication. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of the Korean pDUR implementation on the proportion of drug-drug interactions (DDIs) using claims data from HIRA. Methods: A before-after comparison of the prevalence of DDIs between prescription was conducted, using HIRA administrative claims data of medical institution from January 2010 to December 2011. The analysis unit was the prescription issued and pairs before and after. The main outcome measures were the proportion of DDIs within- (control group) or between- physician encounters. To examine the difference, a paired t-test was applied. Results: We found that DDIs proportion between prescription decreased significantly (t=3.04, p=0.0026) after the implementation of pDUR, whereas there is no significant reduction within prescription (t=1.15, p=0.2518). With respect to the prevalence of DDIs between drug groups, the most dramatic reduction was occurred between 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase inhibitors and anti-fungal agents. Conclusion: It seems effective that giving a direct feedback to prescribers by a prospective DUR. Further research is needed to assess the impact of DUR to final outcomes such as hospitalization.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.19-32
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• 2007

Objectives : It is necessary to monitor consumption of drugs in order to enhance promote appropriate use of drugs. Defined Daily Dose(DDD) of World Health Organization(WHO) has been used for evaluating the amount of medicine use. However, DDD of some drugs must be determined for drugs in Korea which are not listed by WHO. Our formulary follows ourself classification and DDD of some drugs must be determined since they exist only in Korea. This study was aimed to determine DDD value using RAND Appropriateness Methods and evaluate the amount of antibiotics use using DDD value. Methods : J01 antibiotics of WHO anatomical therapeutic chemical(ATC) classification were extracted from drug formulary. Antibiotics list without DDD was identified to determine their DDD with comprehensive review of references and recommendation of experts. defined. Review of reference was executed. of Expert panels were comprised of clinical pharmacist and clinical doctors. Modified Delphi Method was applied by survey and consensus meeting. Amount of antibiotic use was calculated by DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in the national level using health insurance claim data. Results : The result of 1 round, DDD values of 28 ingredients were determined from the first round of consensus meeting. With 2nd round meeting, 3 ingredients were deleted and DDD of 17 ingredients were decided. Analysis of antibiotic use in health insurance claim data showed 22.97 DDD/1000 inhabitants/day in 2003 year. Conclusion : This study can contribute to the establishment of DDD assignment and thus quantifying drug uses.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.73-94
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• 2006

This study was carried out to show how the Analytic Hierarchy Process technique could be used in setting the priority among selected diseases to increase the range of health insurance benefit. Thirty experts, including doctors (group1), experts for preventive medicine or public health(group2), and representatives of the insured(group 3), participated in the study panel that is conducted for priority setting. They were asked to evaluate the priorities among 6 selected criteria and then 42 selected diseases. The results were as follows; First, representatives of the insured think that the magnitude of out-of-pocket payment should have high priority while doctors think that effectiveness of treatment should have high priority. Second, all experts think that catastrophic diseases such as malignant neoplasm, major heart disease, and cerebral vascular disease should have high priority in health insurance coverage even though there is little difference among groups. These results can be useful to establish a systematic strategy for expanding health insurance benefit package.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.62-70
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• 2004