• Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.146-154
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• 2002

Purpose : Death due to cancer has been continuously increasing, therefore cancer is the first in the cause of death now. A national policy for the elevation of medical costs in cancer patients is necessary, therefore, we searched for the medical costs and its related factors in terminal cancer patients for the effective reduction of the medical costs. Methods : We reviewed the medical records of 259 hospitalized terminal cancer patients who had died during the period of July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2002. History of cancer included type of cancer, type of past treatment, existence of metastasis. Clinical manifestation was examined and medical costs on last admission was categorized based on the account of charges of the department of patient affair on the last hospitalization. For analysis of factors related with medical costs, ANOVA was used. Results : Of the 259 patients, the number of male was 135 cases (52.1%), and the female, 124 cases (47.9%). The most frequent type of cancer was stomach (21.9%) cancer. Of the clinical manifestation, anorexia (87.6%) was the most frequent manifestation. Total medical costs was 740,628,045won, the mean costs was $285,968{\pm}3,070,272won$. The frequent category of medical costs was injection (32.0%), medical accommodation (27.9%), examination (14.0%), in order. The only factor related with mean medical costs was pain (P<0.05). Conclusion : If unnecessary injection of opioid analgesics is reduced, hospice care at home is activated and excessive examination is reduced In terminal cancer inpatients, it will be possible to reduce the medical costs in terminal cancer patients more effectively.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.352-361
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• 2010

Objectives: This study estimated the annual socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease in 2008 from a societal perspective and using a cost-of-illness method. Methods: Our model employed a comprehensive set of diagnostic disease codes to define food-borne diseases with using the Korea National Health Insurance (KNHI) reimbursement data. This study classified the food borne illness as three types of symptoms according to the severity of the illness: mild, moderate, severe. In addition to the traditional method of assessing the cost-of-illness, the study included measures to account for the lost quality of life. We estimated the cost of the lost quality of life using quality-adjusted life years and a visual analog scale. The direct cost included medical and medication costs, and the non-medical costs included transportation costs, caregiver's cost and administration costs. The lost productivity costs included lost workdays due to illness and lost earnings due to premature death. Results: The study found the estimated annual socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease in 2008 were 954.9 billion won (735.3 billion won-996.9 billion won). The medical cost was 73.4 -76.8% of the cost, the lost productivity cost was 22.6% and the cost of the lost quality of life was 26.0%. Conclusions: Most of the cost-of-illness studies are known to have underestimated the actual socioeconomic costs of the subjects, and these studies excluded many important social costs, such as the value of pain, suffering and functional disability. The study addressed the uncertainty related to estimating the socioeconomic costs of food-borne disease as well as the updated cost estimates. Our estimates could contribute to develop and evaluate policies for food-borne disease.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.13
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• pp.5389-5393
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• 2014

Background: A clinical pathway (CP) can standardize and improve perioperative care for a number of interventions. In hepatic surgery, however, pertinent evidence is very limited. This study was conducted to implement a CP for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients undergoing hepatectomy, and to evaluate its effects on hospital costs, length of hospital stay (LOHS) and early clinical outcomes. Materials and Methods: Medical records for HCC patients undergoing hepatectomy were retrospectively reviewed before implementation of a CP (the non-CP group) from March 2012 to August 2012. This information was compared with the data collected prospectively from patients after implementation of the CP (the CP group) between September 2012 and April 2013. Hospital costs, LOHS and early clinical outcomes were evaluated and compared between groups. Results: There were no significant differences in terms of patient clinical characteristics between the two groups. For clinical outcome measures, no significant differences were found in postoperative complications, mortality and readmission rate. The hospital costs were significantly reduced from 24,844 RMB in the non-CP group to 19,761 RMB in the CP group (p<0.01). In addition, patients of the CP group also had shorter LOHS compared with the non-CP group (8.3 versus 12.3 days, p<0.001). Conclusions: The CP proved to be an effective approach to minimize hospital costs and LOHS with hepatectomy for HCC without compromising patient care.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.17-22
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• 2017

Purpose - Clarifying one of the biggest public Hospital Costs and incomes according to patients' case mix. It leads to prepare financial information about pubic medical tariffs and hospital operational costs. Research design, data, and methodology - This study calculates the costs both, with and without taking into account capital costs. This holds for comparison of hoteling based on case mix in all medical procedures. The checklists were reviewed and filled by reviewing accounting documents of the hospital, warehouse exclusion list, and daily books of laundry and CSR. Data was analyzed descriptively by using Excel. Results - In both cases, the hospital is losing in terms of hoteling. Because the buildings and equipment are new, this loss is not tangible. However, this will be revealed when costs of reconstruction and replacement of equipment. The loss rate per day of hospitalization was 569318 Rials for Coronary Care Unit (CCU), 528171 Rials for Post Intensive Care Unit (Post ICU), 474570 Rials for ICU, 233183 Rials for Post CCU and 204803 for Surgical ward. Conclusions - Income of hoteling was lower than its costs. ANOVA showed a strong relationship between case mix and hospital costs as well as case mix and its income. This suggests that optimal case mix can minimize the costs and maximize income.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Fundamentals of Nursing
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.300-306
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• 2003

Purpose: This study was done to help provide patients with information on medical insurance cost through medical insurance education for nurses, to increase effective management, check on omissions in treatment and appropriateness and accuracy of fees, and to contribute to the economic growth of hospital by providing nurses with necessary knowledge about medical insurance cost. Method: The participants in this study were clinical nurses in general hospitals. The study instrument was a questionnaire developed by the researcher through reference to data for medical insurance education. The data were analyzed with percentages, means, ANOVA, and Duncan method using SPSS PC+10. Result: The results on knowledge of medical insurance according to general characteristics of the nurses showed that there were significant differences according to age: (p=.0036) highest level of education (p=.0007), position (p=.0010) and place where education on medical insurance was received (p=.0093). Conclusion: Continuous in-service education for clinical nurses is reflected in increased knowledge about medical insurance costs but special attention needs to be given to younger nurses and nurses with less education, as well as staff nurses, and those nurses who only received education on medical insurance during their schooling. Accordingly, in-service education is necessary for nurses at the time of orientation so that they have knowledge on standards for recuperation allowance, guidelines to calculate material costs, and guidelines to calculate drug rates. In addition, as medical insurance cost frequently change, all nurses need continuous in-service education.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.23-35
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• 2017

Objectives : This study analyzed the trends of patient costs in 7diagnosis-related groups(DRG) since July 2013 when the government made it mandatory for all hospitals and clinics. Methods : Data were collected from the 7DRG score chart published by the Ministry of Health and Welfare(MoHW) from July 2013 to January 2017. The average value of the weekday relative value scale was multiplied by unit price, referred to as'- "patient costs by disease group"-' and they were analyzed by time series. Results : Patient costs had increased among all patients with a comprehensive disease. Small and medium-sized hospitals (hospitals and clinics) showed a slight increase in patient costs. Conclusions : Enforcement of the Korean diagnosis-related groups has led to management crisis in small and medium-sized hospitals and deterioration medical service quality. To solve this problem, The weekday relative value scale of small and medium-sized hospitals should be increased significantly.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.187-199
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• 2018

In this study, only 2,877 men, 2,614 men (44.6%), and 143 women (2.3%) were selected as the subjects who were over 18 years old in response to the health consciousness of the Korean medical panel data in 2012. Emergency of smokers through medical use and medical expenditure data by smoking. The social costs were estimated through medical expenses according to the number of hospitalization and outpatient medical use. The social cost was calculated by summing the social expenditure on health care costs, insurer (corporation) costs, copayment, non - salary, and productivity costs by adopting the social perspective established by the health economist Rice (1968). The rate of annual emergency medical use by smoking status is 7.5% for smokers per 100 people, 9.8 times for use, and 809,003 won for social expenses. The annual rate of hospitalization per 100,000 population by smoking status was 9.6% for smokers per 100 population, 9 times for use, The social cost is 706,870 won. Annual smoking rate by smoking status was 68.6% for smoking, 9 cases for annual medical use,

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.32 no.2
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• pp.125-136
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• 2022

The costliness index (CI) is an index that is used in various ways to improve the quality of medical care and the management of appropriate treatment in medical institutions. However, the current calculation method for CI has a limitation in reflecting the actual medical cost of the patient unit because the outpatient and inpatient costs are evaluated separately. It is desirable to calculate the CI by integrating the medical cost into the episode unit. We developed an episode-based CI method using the episode classification system of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to the National Inpatient Sample data in Korea, which can integrate the admission and ambulatory care cost to episode unit. Additionally, we compared our new method with the previous method. In some episodes, the correlation between previous and episode-based CI was low, and the proportion of outpatient treatment costs in total cost and readmission rates are high. As a result of regression analysis, it is possible that the level of total medical costs of the patient unit in low volume medical institute and rural area has been underestimated. High proportion of outpatient treatment cost in total medical cost means that some medical institutions may have provided medical services in the ambulatory care that are ancillary to inpatient treatment. In addition, a high readmission rate indicates insufficient treatment service for inpatients, which means that previous CI may not accurately reflect actual patient-based treatment costs. Therefore, an integrated patient-unit classification system which can be used as a more effective CI indicator is needed.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.17-23
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• 2021

With the introduction of national health insurance, the burden of health care costs decreased and choices of medical services widened. However, because of the rapid expansion of non-covered medical services by health insurance, financial security for health care expenditure is still low. This gives patients barriers to choose medical services especially for non-covered medical services, and it becomes narrower. Compared to Korea, Japan has high financial protection in health care utilization, but there exists a limitation using covered and non-covered medical services both together. This is called a prohibition of mixed treatment in health care. This study reviews the Japanese health care system that limits choosing medical services and the burden of health care costs. The prohibition of mixed treatment can alleviate the out-of-pocket burden in the non-benefit sector, but it can be found that it has a huge limitation in that it places restrictions on choices for both healthcare professionals and patients.

• The Journal of Korean Obstetrics and Gynecology
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.72-82
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• 2010

Purpose: This study was conducted to estimate the annual socioeconomic costs of menopausal syndrome treated with oriental medicine in Korea 2008. Methods: Study subjects selected were patients aged 40 years or older who had national health insurance(NHI) claims record with menopausal syndrome(KCDO codes: K04, K04.0, K04.2, K04.3, K04.4) for oriental medicine treatment in 2008. Direct medical cost of oriental medicine treatment for menopausal syndrome were measured from NHI claims records. Direct non-medical costs were estimated as transportation costs incurred when visiting hospitals. Indirect costs were defined as patients' productivity loss associated with office visits or hospitalization. Also, the costs of unpaid-household chores were calculated. Results: The total cost for the oriental medicine treatment of menopausal syndrome in the nation was estimated to be 743,091,219 Korean won(KRW) which included direct costs at 442,971,637 KRW and indirect costs at 300,119,583 KRW. Conclusion: This study provides an important perspective of socioecnomic influence due to menopausal syndrome treated with oriental medicine. And this results can be used as elementary data for menopausal syndrome-related health policy of oriental medicine.