• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• 제37권
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• pp.1-31
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• 1999

In Korea, little is known about unemployment duration and exit rate from unemployment. This paper empirically examines the duration of unemployment using data for the years 1996 and 1997 on unemployed individuals who are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits in Korea. A parametric survival model (log-normal model) is adopted to identify factors predicting transitions to reemployment. Factors that affect unemployment duration are sex, age, employment duration (year), prior salary, region, prior employment industry, cause of unemployment, officially determined unemployment benefit duration, degree of benefit exhaustion, and amount of benefits for early reemployment. However, education is not statistically significant In degree of benefit exhaustion, the exit rate from unemployment decreases as benefit exhaustion is approached. In amount of benefits for early reemployment, the exit rate from unemployment increases as amount of benefits increases. Hazards for reemployment gradually increase until 80 days after unemployment and gradually decrease in the following period. Thus, we find that distribution of hazards for reemployment has log-normal shapes between inverted U and inverted L This paper takes advantage of a unique analysis about unemployment duration and exit rate from unemployment in the Korean Unemployment Insurance system which functions as the most valuable social safely-net mechanism in the recent national economic crisis. Indeed, this paper provides a basic knowledge about realities of unemployed individuals in the Unemployment Insurance system and identifies research areas that require further study.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• 제37권
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• pp.119-141
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• 1999

Korea paid attention to the work injury insurance in the early economic development stage as other developed countries did. Thus "The industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Law" was legislated in 1963 and it is now expanded to apply to the workplace with five or more employees. Beside the low coverage of the number of employees, the scope of benefits are the problem of work injury insurance. The work injury insurance's main benefits are for the loss of income and the medical cost caused by occupational accidents. On the other hand, the investment on the prevention accident and the medical, social and employment rehabilitation is very low, even though the occupational accident pension is higher than that in other OECD countries. Practically lay-off benefits and survivor' benefit for some special workers are paid more than they need, therefore they want to remain under the benefit condition and the medical care days are longer. This paper indicates the problems of work injury insurance and suggest how to improve the functions of it.

• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• 제23권1호
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• pp.1-7
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• 2011

Reforming the insurance scheme for herbal drugs in the National Health Insurance is a long-cherished desire for Korean Medicine doctors. Because most Korean Medicine doctors distrust the quality of existing insured herbal drugs, which are powdered mixes of each herbal extract, the use and the expenditure of insured herbal drugs have been decreased in the last ten years. To address this, it has been demanded to insure the composite type of herbal preparation, which is the extracted powder of the whole prescription, to the benefit coverage for herbal drugs. Many stake holders, however, have so far been unable to reach an agreement on this. In this situation, Sasang Constitutional prescriptions are expected to make a breach of insuring the composite herbal preparations, because some of them were approved as prescription drugs in 1999. In this review, I discussed the problems of insured herbal drugs, the necessity of insuring the composite herbal preparations and Sasang Constitutional prescriptions, and the tasks of Sasang Constitutional Society to insure them.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.126-134
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• 2014

Purpose: This study was aimed to examine the financial effect of 2-tiered copayment system on annual expenditure of pharmacy benefit in the National Health Insurance (NHI) of Korea, focusing on oral antidiabetic medications. Methods: 284 oral antidiabetic products with 14 different active single ingredients listed in the National Formulary of NHI (August 2009) were assigned to tier 1 or tier 2 according to the selected criteria. 10 different combinations of coinsurance rates were selected to estimate the changes in drug expenditure cost of NHI. Results: The annual drug cost was estimated based on the drug price per unit listed in the National Formulary and the used amount of products in 2009 from the IMS Health data of Korea. In the combinations of coinsurance rate of 20% for tier 1 and 40% for tier 2, the total annual drug cost was estimated to be reduced by 1.3% in the case of no change of generic and original drug consumptions, and to be reduced by 4.3% in the case of 10% increased generic drug consumptions. Conclusion: The tiered copayment system with optimal coinsurance rates appears to be a potential strategy to reduce the financial burden of NHI in Korea by promoting the use of generic products.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.61-73
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• 2017

In the Health Insurance System of South Korea, patients must pay high out-of-pocket expenditures for the medical service by uninsured medical benefits. So, the government implemented a policy to relieve the burdens of patients by lowering the uninsured selective-medical treatment costs in August, 2014. This study investigate the policy effects of selective-medical treatment(SMT) on the medical service's usage and cost with severe lung cancer patients. The patients are selected in one university hospital(with 1,000 beds), between one year before and after policy implementation. The study find that the usages of outpatient(visit number) and inpatient (length of stay) are not changed by statistically significant. It means that there are no effect in medical service behavior between before and after the policy. In medical expenses, outpatients decreased in their out-of-pocket payments by policy, but total medical expenses and insured medical benefits is not changed, because of the increased another medical insurance fees. For inpatient, although the SMT costs are statistically significant decrease, the total out-of-pocket payments and insured medical expenses are not changed statistically significant. Those findings show that the political decision making about SMT made lowing the selective-medical expenses, but total insured cost and patient's out-of pocket money were not changed by the new increased medical insurance fees. It means that the policy about SMT gave no particular benefit for patients. So, it need another benefit plans to lower the medical expenses of severe lung cancer patients with a high medical service usage and much total medical expense.

• Journal of Periodontal and Implant Science
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• 제46권6호
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• pp.405-414
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• 2016

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a policy change to expand Korean National Health Insurance (KNHI) benefit coverage to include scaling on access to dental care at the national level. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 12,794 adults aged 20 to 64 years from Korea National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (2010-2014) was analyzed. To examine the effect of the policy on the outcomes of interest (unmet dental care needs and preventive dental care utilization in the past year), an estimates-based probit model was used, incorporating marginal effects with a complex sampling structure. The effect of the policy on individuals depending on their income and education level was also assessed. Results: Adjusting for potential covariates, the probability of having unmet needs for dental care decreased by 6.1% and preventative dental care utilization increased by 14% in the post-policy period compared to those in the pre-policy period (2010, 2012). High income and higher education levels were associated with fewer unmet dental care needs and more preventive dental visits. Conclusions: The expansion of coverage to include scaling demonstrated to have a significant association with decreasing unmet dental care needs and increasing preventive dental care utilization. However, the policy disproportionately benefited certain groups, in contrast with the objective of the policy to benefit all participants in the KNHI system.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.356-367
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• 2021

Purpose: This study conducted an economic evaluation of hospital-based home care services for the patients who had undergone breast cancer surgery. Methods: A total of 12,483 patients over 18 years of age who had received breast cancer surgery in 26 tertiary hospitals in 2018 were analyzed with the claim data from the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service using cost-minimization analysis and societal perspectives. Results: There were 156 patients who utilized hospital-based home care services within 30 days after breast cancer surgery, and they received 2.17 (SD=1.17) hospital-based home care service on average. The average total cost was 5,250,028 KRW (SD=1,905,428) for the group receiving continuous hospital-based home care and 6,113,402 KRW (SD=2,033,739) for the group not receiving continuous hospital-based home care (p<.001). The results of the economic evaluation of continuous hospital-based home care services in patients who had undergone breast cancer surgery indicated a total benefit of 953,691,000 KRW, a total cost of 819,004,000 KRW, and a benefit-cost ratio of 1.16 in 2018. Conclusion: Continuous hospital-based home care was considered economically feasible as the total costs for the group receiving continuous hospital-based home care were lower than those of the group not receiving continuous hospital-based home care. Therefore, policy modification and financial incentives are recommended to increase the utilization of hospital-based home care services for patients who had undergone breast cancer surgery.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
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• 제26권3호
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• pp.37-52
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to provide the valid data about residential-linked pension insurance development. The development was a part of national housing projects, which was an incentive for rural living of retired people, in order to relieve residential issues of elderly and revitalize rural communities by residents moving from cities. The insuring intent, decisive insuring factors and the residential service demand degree of people preparing retirement were analyzed. Data was collected in October, 2007. 364 Sample Subjects lived in Seoul Metropolitan area. Firstly, more than 90% of respondents had intention to purchase a residential-linked pension insurance and about 50% of them necessarily desired receiving premium for moving in. This indicated that it could be developed as an insurance which helped to meet housing expenses by housing-linked system, and in the mean time, it met the original purpose of pension insurance as the pension benefit could be guaranteed for all the insurance subscribers. Secondly, the respondents, whose income and private assets were higher, were able to pay more for insurance compared to average. Therefore, It was necessary to regulate monthly insurance bill and the payment period according to asset states of insurance subscribers after establishing certain amount of total insurance payment. Thirdly, by and large, it indicated the tendency that the less they prepare for older age the later they wanted to move into the pension insurance residence. It was inferred that in the case of insufficient preparation for older age, people preferred preparing behind time by postponing move in to moving in early to enjoy retired life, due to uncertainties. lastly, the respondents understood the significance of health, medical treatment and emergency management service and these two services were preferred as essential provided services. Because of the necessity of developing residential-linked pension insurance was found to be positive, further research to find the real cost, directives for operation and institutional support for this type of pension insurance might be needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.73-99
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• 1997

This study was carried out by using questionnaires with 126 insurance societies from Sept. 30, 1995 to Oct. 18, 1995. The primary data collected bythe survey have been significantly supplemented by secondary data obtained from sources such as health insurance statistical year books and internal data in the Ministry of Health and Wolfare. Major findings were summarized as follows: Two financial coordinating programs have significantly improved financial status of regional health insurance societies: the catastrophic program for high cost medical care that was initiated in 1991 and the program for hospitalization cost of the aged in 1995. Another finding is that there existed ambiguity and inconsistency of equity index that had been used by stabilization programs and its side effects could not be ignored. Regression analyses were made to identify factors that affect financial transfers. Inde pendent variables in the regression include utilization frequency, dependancy ration, insurance contribution per insured and medical expense per insured. All these variables were statistically significant in the equations of applying distribution rate (distribution/contribution) and transfer rate (transfer/contribution) as dependent variables. Policy suggestions for the catastrophic program for high cost medical care are modifying the definition of catastrophic case and setting the maximum amount of subsidies for each society based on distribution rates. To solve the problems of the financial coordinating program for the aged, we could consider reimbursing more than 50% of the copayment incurred by the aged 65 or more and determining the maximum amount of outpatient copayment at 10,000 Won per day or per visit for the elderly. More fundamental improvement could be made by amending the Welfare Benefit Act to establish and expand medical and welfare facilities for the elderly.

• Quality Improvement in Health Care
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• 제4권2호
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• pp.280-284
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• 1997

Since the start of the Korean Society of Quality Assurance in Health Care in 1994, QA has improved, but it is time to develop our own policies that are more appropriate for Korean hospitals. American Quality Assurance policies are difficult to apply to the Korean medical community due to the differences in health insurance policies, and hospital structure between the two countries. Methods : I would like to propose more efficient organization and management of Quality Assurance according to the specific structures of hospitals in Korea. All of the hospital departments and committees should report to the Quality Assurance office, which in turn should report to the director. I would like to suggest that the current insurance review staff be used for the Quality Assurance office. A nurse should be in charge of the Quality Assurance department. The Quality Assurance department should have three sections: Medical Inssurance Review, QA records for the different Medical Departments, and QA records for the Ancillary Departments. A staff physician should be the chairman of the hospital QA committee, which should serve as the advising body to the QA Department. The QA Committee should be organized into eight subcommittees so that all departments thought the hospital are represented. The current Medical Insurance Review offices in Korea have similar responsibilities to the QA Department: therefore I would like to recommend that the Medical Insurance Review office be changed the the QA office. If there are presently two separate Medical Insurance and QA offices, these should be combined into one office. Conclusion : These changes would surely benefit hospitals and strengthen the efficiency of both Insurance Review and Quality Assurance.