• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2019

Background : Germany is the first country in the world to introduce modern systems of public health insurance, and the country which most widely uses complementary alternative medicine(CAM) in Europe. In early 21^st century, a large evaluation studies were conducted to include acupuncture in health insurance payments, which were eventually decided. Objectives : This study is to investigate and analyze the process of public policy determination on insurance coverage for acupuncture in German health insurance system. Methods : We collected the data and information through the literature search and from the websites of German government departments and health insurance organizations. To obtain contextual information, German experts of health insurance and acupuncture clinical study were interviewed. Results : As use of acupuncture had been growing, German public health insurers wanted to evaluate the validity of acupuncture coverage and sponsored three evaluation projects for clinical effectiveness of acupuncture using randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and pragmatic trials from 2001 to 2005. For some pain condition, acupuncture was founded not to be effective than sham acupuncture, but more effective than standard care. The federal joint committee of health insurance decided to cover acupuncture for chronic pain of lumbar spine and chronic pain in at least one knee joint due to gonarthrosis. Conclusions : Considering the controversial subject matter in the process of acupuncture's health insurance coverage in Germany, expanding the benefits of Korean medicine in Korea needs to come up with ways to overcome the difficulties of placebo effect, standardization and lack of literature evidence.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.210-216
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• 2018

National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) has put a great effort on extending life expectancy, for last 40 years. The system has also made remarkable outcomes in achieving universal health coverage. However, it is facing challenges of low health insurance benefits and sustainability risk due to low birth rate and aging society at the same time. To overcome the difficulties and build a lifelong health security system for the nation, it is required for NHIS to make multilateral changes in its roles. Based on the quantitative growth achieved so far, NHIS needs to strive for the growth in quality by not only increasing coverage and reforming contribution imposition system, but also reorganizing the relevant systems such as lifelong health management support, rational adjustment to the medical fee, and benefit costs monitoring. In addition, it's important for NHIS to restructure the organizational culture by having specialty and communicating with people for high quality of administration and health insurance sustainability.

• The Journal of Korean Medicine
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• v.28 no.3 s.71
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• pp.244-260
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• 2007

Objectives : The purpose of this study was to provide lawmakers with basic data for the purpose of establishing a policy on health insurance for packed herbal medicine. Methods : To properly execute an insurance system for packed herbal medicine, we surveyed the following questions from May 1st to June 15th, 2006: (1)the way to pay the insurance benefits (2)specific impression (disease) names as related to insurance (3)the range of insurance coverage. We obtained answers from 304 Korea traditional doctors. Results : 89.4% respondents were agreed on execution of health insurance for packed herbal medicine. 93.86% respondents answered that the way to pay insurance benefits and the range of insurance coverage have to be changed properly. Most respondents answered that the coverage should be based on a specific disease being treated, not the current symptoms method which relates to the prescription. The execution of health insurance for packed herbal medicine is expected to increase the number of patients and make the Korean medical system more popular. Conclusion : The findings are expected to make it easier for the general public to get treatment by providing basic data with policy makers that will cover packed herbal medicine in insurance. Also, a proper Korea traditional health insurance program should be set up as soon as possible to widen the choice of medicine for the general public.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.25-41
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• 2022

Background & Objectives : As the government of South Korea implemented policies to strengthen health insurance coverage, the health insurance benefit for raw herbal medicines has been promoted. This study investigated the current status of the herbal medicines coverage in the Japanese national health insurance to secure reference data for the design of herbal medicines coverage in South Korea. Methods : Literature review was conducted to collect and analyze the history and current situation on herbal medicines coverage in the Japanese health insurance system. To supplement the contents not presented in the documents, on-site interviews were conducted at the medical institutions and pharmacies that prescribed or prepared herbal medicines in Tokyo, Japan. The contents of the survey included the background and progress of the herbal medicines coverage, the status of herbal medicines use, the payment system, and the safety management of herbal medicines. Results : Since the introduction of health insurance in the 1960s, Japanese insurance system has covered herbal medicines, and so far, it has been maintained without any additional restrictions. When the raw herbal medicines are prescribed to outpatients, the preparation fee is set higher than that of other medicines, but overall payment regulations and systems for herbal medicine are generally the same as other medicines. Conclusions : The case of Japan can be a useful references and implications for national health insurance policy on herbal medicines in south Korea.

• Journal of health informatics and statistics
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.318-328
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• 2018

Objectives: People are living longer, but often with diseases or chronic conditions. As a consequence, interest in resolving insurance blind spots is growing. This study provides substandard risk-relevant statistics to help substandard risks who are likely to fall in insurance blind spots obtain insurance coverage, such as the reimbursement of medical costs, as well as to stimulate insurance product development. Methods: This study uses National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) cohort data to determine the relevant statistics. The incidence rates of severe diseases are derived and compared against standard risks to establish a set of relative risk factors. These incidence rates of standard and substandard risks are then compared. Results: Currently, an individual's cancer history is used in the underwriting process for simplified issue insurance. However, underwriting focusing on hospitalization and procedures related to serious illnesses could lower premiums for substandard risks. Moreover, the statistical results could be used to expand the coverage of health insurance products. Conclusions: This study's relative risk factors can be used to derive simplified issue premium rates for substandard risks. They can also be used to implement discount and loading schemes for medical reimbursement insurance and help insurance companies implement proactive risk management.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.31-38
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• 2015

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors of oral health beliefs on scaling performance by national health insurance coverage in consumers. Methods: The subjects were 353 people living in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi-do from September 25 to October 20, 2013. They filled out the self-reported questionnaire after receiving informed consents. The questionnaire included 6 questions of general characteristics, 6 questions of oral health behavior, 6 questions of health insurance coverage, and 1 question of subjective oral health recognition. The oral health belief consisted of 6 questions of seriousness, 6 questions of susceptibility, 8 questions of barriers, 5 questions of benefit, and 3 questions of self-efficacy measure by Likert 5 scale. Cronbach's alpha in the study was 0.759. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20.0 for frequency analysis, t-test, ANOVA, post-hoc Scheffe test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and binary logistic regression. Results: The influencing factors of oral health belief model were Seriousness(${\beta}=0.091$), Self efficacy(${\beta}=-0.471$) and age(${\beta}=0.855$)(p<0.05). Those who had highly perceived seriousness and younger age tended to have probability of scaling performance. Higher self-efficacy tended to take more chance to have scaling performance probability. Conclusions: In order to cover the scaling by national health insurance, it is very important to notice the benefit of health insurance coverage of scaling to the consumers. National health insurance coverage enables the scaling practice to be easily accessible to the people. Easy access to scaling by low cost strategy can improve the oral health behavior.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.768-774
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to grasp the benefits from pit and fissure sealants and to analyze the factors of influencing the benefit amount by using the raw data of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2007~2013 targeting the subjects aged from 6 years in full to 18 years. The analysis was used STATA 11.0. As a result of the analysis, the following conclusions were obtained. It rose up to 1.24 pieces after carrying out the national health insurance coverage from averagely 0.93 piece until the year in 2007~2009 (up to November) when is before enforcing the national health insurance coverage in the pit and fissure sealants. The benefits from pit and fissure sealants depending on general characteristics were surveyed to be higher in the higher income level, in the more subscription to health insurance and private insurance, and in the more toothbrushing frequency per day. The factors that have influence upon the benefits from pit and fissure sealants were shown to include whether or not to have the national health insurance coverage in the pit and fissure sealants, income level, health insurance type and private insurance subscription appearance, and one-day toothbrushing frequency. Synthesizing the results, a rise in the benefits from pit and fissure sealants is shown in 2010 based on December 2009 when the national health insurance coverage in the pit and fissure sealants was implemented, but is showing the tendency of declining again from 2011. To increase the benefits from pit and fissure sealants, it is thought that the schemes will need to be discussed such as reinforcing publicity on the national health insurance coverage in the pit and fissure sealants, expanding a support for low-income bracket, and differentiating the outpatient cost sharing according to socio-economic level.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.287-307
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• 2009

A person is injured in car accident caused by his/her slight negligence except he / she causes accident by his / her willfulness or gross negligence. Because the National Health Insurance Corporation (hereinafter called "Corporation") shall not provide any insurance benefit "when he has intentionally or through gross negligence caused a criminal conduct or intentionally contributed to the occurrence of an accident" referred to in Article 48 (1) 1 of the National Health Insurance Act. So, if he / she is insured by his / her own bodily injury coverage, he / she can be compensated for his / her medical expenses. The injured have the rights to file either National Health Insurance claim and Automobile Insurance claim but there is no clear and definite adjustment clause. The claim disputes between National Health Insurance (hereinafter called "NHI") and Automobile Insurance (hereinafter called "AI") in the own bodily injury coverage makes some problems. Firstly, there are some differences in co-payments which he / she chooses between NHI and AI. Profit per a patient is higher in the NHI than in the AI. Secondly, it can provoke criticism that people shall unnecessarily pay double contributions. Lastly, it can raise moral hazards. For example, if he / she can cover the compensations when the insured receives the compensations from his / her insurer, the Corporation can be claimed by medical care institution payment of the health care benefit costs. In conclusion, first of all, to improve the national health and preserve the insured's rights the Corporation shall keep notice these facts.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.45-72
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• 2012

The National Health Insurance Corporation has been retrieving from health care providers the payments made to them by insured patients as a result of the health care providers' arbitrary denial of coverage under the National Health Insurance, and has been disbursing such retrieved monies back to the patients, pursuant to Article 57, Sections 1 and 4 of the National Health Insurance Act. However, such practice is an application of the law that lacks legal exactitude. Another problem with such practice is that there is no legal provision under any laws or notices that expressly prohibits arbitrary denial of coverage. A legislative solution, therefore, is called for to address these issues.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.611-621
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• 2020

Objectives: This study aimed to verify the impact of dental health care insurance coverage policy by analyzing the changes in dental care utilization and expenditures over 5 years from 2012 to 2016, when the dental health insurance coverage expansion policy was implemented. From the national cohort data collected by the Korea Health Panel Survey, a retrospective study was conducted for all household members using dental services. Methods: This study statistically verified the difference in the dependent variables by frequency analysis, chi-square test, t-test, and one-way analysis of variance (SPSS version 22, IBM Co. USA, p<0.05). Results: The annual utilization rate steadily increased from 23.4% to 26.1% between 2012 and 2016. Although there were differences in utilization rates by gender, age, and income level, patients kept using the dental services in 2016 regardless of the type of health insurance. The average annual copayment for patient expenditures (out-of-pocket amount) increased from ￦463,844 to ￦537,401 in 2012 and 2016, respectively. Of the dental care expenditures over 5 years, the ratio of uninsured expenses by the elderly decreased from 38.5% to 25.9%, and the national health insurance service coverage increased from 40.3% to 49.1%. Conclusions: Although this policy did not reduce overall patient expenditures, it has been found that there was a positive effect on the elderly and low-income groups; it increased the utilization and access to dental services.