• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제55권4호
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• pp.379-388
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• 2022

Objectives: Throughout history, societies have been impacted by inequality. Many studies have been conducted on the topic more broadly, but only a few have investigated inequalities in out-of-pocket health payments (OHP). This study measures OHP inequality trends among the Iranian households. Methods: This study used data from the Iranian Statistics Center on Iranian household income and expenditures. The analysis included a total of 995 300 households during the 36 years from 1984 to 2019. The Gini coefficient, Atkinson index, and Theil index were calculated for Iranian OHP. Results: Average Iranian household OHP increased from 33 US dollar (USD) in 1984 to 47 USD in 2019. During this 36-year span, the average±standard deviation Gini coefficient for OHP was 0.73±0.04, and the Atkinson and Theil indexes were 0.68±0.05 and 1.14±0.29, respectively. The Gini coefficients for the subcategories of OHP of outpatient diagnostic services, medical assistant accessories, hospital inpatient services, and addiction cessation were 0.70, 0.61, 0.84, and 0.64, respectively. Conclusions: In this study, we scrutinized trends of inequality in the OHP of Iranian households. Inequality in OHP decreased slightly over the past four decades. An analysis of trends among different subgroups revealed that affluent households, such as households with insurance coverage and households in higher income deciles, experienced higher inequality. Therefore, lower inequality in health care expenditures may be related to restricted access to health care services in Iran.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.437-461
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• 1997

이 연구는 의료보험관리공단의 공 교 의료보험자료를 이용하여 1989년부터 1993년까지의 5년간의 60세이상의 노인의 의료이용과 진료비의 변화를 연령별, 성별, 의료 보험료 수준별 코호트를 구성하여 상병당으로 분석함으로써 좀 더 정확한 변화의 양상을 파악하고 예측을 하는데 연구의 목적이 있다. 연령별 연도별 입원 수진율은 연도별 입원수진율은 70-74세 군이 89년과 93년에 각각 1,000명당 117.3과 141.1로 가장 높았으며, 매년 증가하는 추세이다. 연령 코호트의 연도별 상병건수는 전체적으로는 5년 동안에 40.5%증가하였다. 성별 코호트의 연도별 상병건수는 남자 상병건수보다 여자가 많이 증가하였으며, 남자와 여자의 연평균 증가율은 각각 9.1%와 10.2%였다. 연령 코호트의 상병당 연도별 입원진료비의 변화는 전체적으로 보았을 때 5년간 총 진료비는 15.4%증가 하였다. 이 중 진료행위료의 증가가 21.5%로 가장 큰 폭으로 증가하였다. 의료 보험료 수준별 코호트의 상병당 입원진료비 변화는 보험료 수준이 낮은 군보다 높은 군에서 진료비가 높았으며, 보험료 수준별 코호트의 연도의 경과에 따라서 각종 진료비가 증가하였다. 재원기간은 0.08% 증가하여 거의 변화가 없었으며, 1991년을 기점으로 감소하는 경향이었다. 10대 다빈도 상병 중에서 가장 흔한 질병은 백내장이었다. 1993년의 10대 다빈도상병 중 1989년에 비하여 비율이 증가한 상병은 백내장, 뇌동맥 폐색이었으며, 감소한 질병은 폐결핵과 본태성 고혈압이었다. 전체 상병에서 10대 상병이 차지하는 비율은 30-35%였으며, 연령군별로는 차이가 없었다. 연령 코호트의 이용의료기관별 평균진료비 및 재원 기간은 전체적으로는 병원급 의료기관에서의 진료비 증가율이 가장 높았으며, 재원기간은 의료기관 종별에 관계없이 감소하였으며, 병원이 4.9% 감소하여 감소폭이 가장 켰다. 총 상병건수에서 고액진료건수가 차지하는 비율은 67.6% 증가하였고, 암환자건수는 8.9% 증가하였으며, 장기입원환자가 차지하는 비율은 오히려 1.2% 감소하였다. 총 진료비 규모는 62.2% 증가하였으며, 고액상병진료비가 차지하는 비율은 5년간 129.9% 증가하였고, 암환자 진료비는 68.5%, 장기입원환자의 진료비는 59.4% 증가하였다. 상병당 입원진료비 및 재원기간을 1989년 수가로 환산하여 변화 추이를 보면, 상병당 총 진료비는 매우 완만한 증가를 보이고, 약제비는 오히려 약간 감소하는 경향이었고, 진료행위료는 지속적으로 상승하는 추세였다. 재원기간은 완만하게 감소하는 양상을 보였다. 연령구간별로 구분하여 분석한 결과 진료비와 재원기간과는 연령에 관계없이 비슷한 상관계수를 보였으나, 의료보험료 수준과 연령구간별 진료비는 상관계수는 매우 작았으며, 연령군별로 큰 차이는 없었다. 시계열 분석 결과 향후 약제비는 매우 완만한 감소 추세를 보일 것이고, 진료행위료와 총 진료비는 지속적으로 증가할 것으로 예측되었으며, 재원기간은 13.0일로 변화가 없을 것으로 예측되었다. 이 연구에서는 진료행위료의 증가가 총 진료비의 상승을 주도하고 있는 것으로 생각된다. 이는 첨단 의료기기나 신기술의 도입에 의한 것으로 의료기관들의 서비스 다각화 전략과도 관련 있는 것으로 생각된다. 또한 의료이용량 즉 입원상병건수의 증가가 진료비 상승에 영향을 많이 미치는 것으로 판단되며 전체 인구 집단의 의료비 상승요인과는 다른 양상을 보일 수 있으므로 노인 인구에 대한 의료비 절감 대책은 다른 연령층과 구별하여 적용할 필요성이 있다고 볼 수 있다. 향후 노인 연령 군별 질병양상의 변화와 서비스량 및 변화에 대한 연구를 개인특성 자료나 의료기관의 특성 등과 연계하여 포괄적인 연구를 수행함으로써 노인입원 특성과 향후 노인의료 이용량과 진료비의 추이를 판단하고 이를 토대로 노인의료문제의 해결을 위한 방안을 마련할 수 있으리라 생각된다.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제24권4호
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• pp.485-495
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• 1991

This study examined the effects of referral requirements for insurance patients which have been enforced since July 1, 1989 when medical insurance coverage was extended to the whole population except beneficiaries of medical assistance program. The requirements are mainly aimed at discouraging the use of tertiary care hospitals by imposing restrictions on the patient's choice of a medical service facility. The expectation is that such change in the pattern of medical care utilization would produce several desirable effects including increased efficiency in patient care and balanced development of various types of medical service facilities. In this study, these effects were assessed by the change in the number of out-patient visits and bed-days per illness episode and the share of each type of facility in the volume of services and the amount of expenditures after the implementation of the new referral system. The data for analysis were obtained from the claims to the insurance for government and school employees. The sample was drawn from the claims for the patients treated during the first six months of 1989, prior to the enforcement of referral requirements, and those of the patients treated during the first six months of 1990, after the enforcement. The 1989 sample included 299,824 claims (3.6% of total) and the 1990 sample included 332,131 (3.7% of total). The data were processed to make the unit of analysis an illness episode instead of an insurance claim. The facilities and types of care utilized for a given illness episode are defined to make up the pathway of medical care utilization. This pathway was conceived of as a Markov Chain process for further analysis. The conclusion emerged from the analysis is that the enforcement of referral requirements resulted in less use of tertiary care hospitals, and thereby decreased the volume of services and the amount of insurance expenses per illness episode. However, there are a few points that have to be taken into account in relation to the conclusion. The new referral system is likely to increase the use of medical services not covered by insurance, so that its impact on national health expenditures would be different from that on insurance expenditures. The extension of insurance coverage must have inereased patient load for all types of medical service organizations, and this increase may be partly responsible for producing the effects attributed to the new referral system. For example, excessive patient load for tertiary care hospitals may lead to the transfer of their patients to other types of facilities. Another point is that the data for this study correspond to very early phase of the new system. But both patients and medical care providers would adapt themselves to the new system to avoid or overcome its disadvantages for them, so as that its effects could change over time. Therefore, it is still necessary to closely monitor the impact of the referral requirements.

• 대한통합의학회지
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• 제7권2호
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• pp.111-119
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• 2019

Purpose : The aim of this study was to investigate patterns of medical use among juveniles and adolescents, including for chronic disease, in Korea. The study sought to do the following: (a) investigate the extent to which chronic diseases account for medical expenditures, (b) investigate and the socio-demographic characteristics associated with medical use, and (c) identify the differences in medical use between juveniles and adolescents. Methods : We used data from the 2015 Korean Health Panel and selected 12 variables. The socio-demographic characteristics investigated included, growth period (juvenile, adolescents), gender, family income, national basic livelihood act status, disability registration, and degree of disability. There were five medical factors that were considered: emergency room use, hospitalization use, hospital outpatient use, chronic disease, and medical expenditure. Data were analyzed using stepwise multiple and logistic regression. Results : The prevalence of chronic disability in juveniles and adolescents was 31.1 % and 1 %, respectively. The factors affecting medical expenditures included hospitalization use, hospital outpatient use, family income, disability, gender, chronic disease, and emergency room use ($R^2=.160$, p<.05). For national basic livelihood act recipients, the probability of having chronic disease was about 1.6 times higher (OR=1.597, 95 % CI=1.092-2.335, p=.016), compared with non-national basic livelihood act recipients. People with disabilities were 6.6 times more likely than those without disabilities to suffer from chronic disease (OR =6.571, 95 % CI=2.776-15.556, p<.001). Hospital outpatient user was 2.3 times higher than non-user (OR=2.260, 95 % CI=1.702-3.001, p<.001). Juveniles had a 1.7 times and 6.2 times higher likelihood of emergency rooms user (OR=1.654, 95 % CI=1.270-2.155, p<.001), and hospital outpatient user than adolescents (OR=6.208, 95 % CI=4.443-8.676, p<.001). Conclusion : The findings of this study suggest that health care services for juveniles is needed to manage chronic diseases that have an effect on medical expenditures.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제28권1호
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• pp.207-223
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• 1995

A new medical delivery system which regulated outpatient department(OPD) use from tertiary care hospitals was adopted in 1989. Under the new system, patients using tertiary care hospital OPD without referral slip from clinics or hospitals could not get any insurance benefit for the services received from the tertiary care hospital. This study was conducted to evaluate the Patient Referral System(PRS) with respect to health care expenditures and utilization. Two data sets were used in this study. One was monthly data set(from January 1986 to December 1992) from the Annual Report of Korea Medical Insurance Corporation(KMIC). The other was monthly joint data set composed of personal data of which 10% were selected randomly with their utilization data of KMIC from January 1988 to December 1992. The data were analyzed by time-series intervention model of SAS-ETS. The results of this study were as follows: 1. There was no statistically significant changes in per capita expenditures following PRS. 2. Utilization episodes per capita was increased statistically significantly after implementation of PRS. The use of clinics and hospitals increased significantly, whereas in tertiary care hospitals the use decreased significantly immediately after implementation of PRS and increased afterwards. 3. Follow-up visits per episode were decreased statistically significantly after implementation of PRS. The decrease of follow-up visits per episode were remarkable in clinics and hospitals, whereas in tertiary care hospitals it was increased significantly after implementation of PRS. 4. There was no statistically significant changes in prescribing days per episode following PRS. Futhermore, clinics and hospitals showed a statistically significant decrease in prescribing days per episode, whereas in tertiary care hospital it showed statistically significant increase after implementation of PRS. 5. Except high income class, the use of tertiary care hospitals showed statistically significant decrease after implementation of PRS. The degree of decrease in the use of tertiary care hospitals was inversely proportional to income. These results suggest that the PRS policy was not efficient because per capita expenditures did not decrease, and was not effective because utilization episodes per capita, follow-up visits per episode. and prescribing days per episode were not predictable and failed to show proper utilization. It was somewhat positive that utilization episodes per capita were decreased temporarily in tertiary care hospitals. And PRS policy was not appropriate because utilization episodes per capita was different among income groups. In conclusion, the PRS should be revised for initial goal attainment of cost containment and proper health care utilization.

• 보건행정학회지
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• 제34권1호
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• pp.87-93
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• 2024

연구배경: 최근 건강기능식품 섭취에 따른 의료비 절감효과에 대해 상이한 연구결과들이 제시되면서 논쟁이 불거졌다. 이에 따라 본 연구는 건강기능식품 섭취 여부가 의료비 지출에 미친 영향을 분석하고자 한다. 방법: 2019-2020년의 제2기 한국의료패널 자료에서 2년간 건강기능식품을 섭취한 군과 섭취하지 않은 군을 확인하고 이들의 일반적 특성 차이를 배제하고자 성향점수매칭기법을 통해 1:1 매칭 데이터를 추출하였으며 두 군의 연간 총 의료비를 비교하였다. 더불어 의료비 지출에 대한 건강기능식품 섭취 여부의 영향을 확인하기 위해 다변량 회귀분석(Proc Surveyreg)을 실시하였다. 결과: 건강기능식품 섭취군은 약 172만 원을, 미섭취군은 약 143만 원을 의료비로 지출하였다(p=0.0186). 다변량 회귀분석 결과, 섭취군이 미섭취군에 비해 약 26.15% 더 많은 의료비를 지출하는 것으로 확인되었다(p=0.0004). 결론: 건강기능식품 섭취가 의료비를 절감시킨다는 이전 연구들과 달리, 본 연구에서는 건강기능식품을 지속적으로 섭취하는 사람들이 의료서비스 지출이 더 큰 것으로 나타났다. 이는 건강기능식품 섭취가 질병 예방이나 의료비 절감의 관점보다는 건강에 관심 있는 사람들이 건강관리를 위해 취하는 행동임을 제시한 이전 연구들과 같은 맥락으로 해석될 수 있다. 그러나 의료패널 자료의 다양한 한계점으로 인해 주의 깊은 해석이 필요하다. 향후 개인수준의 코호트 자료를 활용한 인과성 규명이 필요하다.

• Hip & pelvis
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• 제36권3호
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• pp.204-210
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• 2024

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the rates of (1) in-hospital lengths of stay (LOS), (2) readmissions, (3) medical complications, and (4) costs of care are higher for patients with depressive disorder (DD) undergoing primary total hip arthroplasty (THA) for treatment of femoral neck fractures (FNFs). Materials and Methods: A retrospective query of a national administrative claims database for patients undergoing primary THA from 2006 to 2014 was conducted. Patients with DD undergoing THA for treatment of FNF were 1:5 ratio propensity score matched to a cohort (DD=6,758, controls=33,708). Primary endpoints included LOS, 90-day medical complications, 90-day readmissions, and healthcare reimbursements. A P-value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Longer LOS were observed for patients with DD compared to those without DD (5.6 days vs. 5.4 days, P<0.001). Similar readmission rates (29.9% vs. 25.0%, odds ratio [OR] 1.03, P=0.281) were observed between groups. The odds of 90-day medical complications were higher for patients with DD compared to control subjects (60.6% vs. 21.4%, OR 1.57, P<0.0001). Within the 90-day episode of care interval, patients with a history of DD incurred significantly higher healthcare expenditures ($21,382 vs. $19,781, P<0.001). Conclusion: Our findings showed longer LOS, higher odds of 90-day medical complications, and higher healthcare expenditures within the 90-day episode of care following a primary THA for treatment of FNF for patients with DD compared to the matched cohort. Thus, accordingly, patients with DD should receive counseling prior to undergoing surgery.

• 지역사회간호학회지
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• 제27권3호
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• pp.272-283
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• 2016

Purpose: This is a comparative study using secondary data from the Korean national long term care (LTC) insurance. Methods: Visiting nursing (VN) service users (n=666) and non-users (n=4,375) were extracted and compared in terms of medical expenditures, length of hospitalization, and annual number of ambulatory care visits to investigate effects of VN services in LTC. Results: Total health care expenditures were compared between the two groups and it was found that VN service users spent about $ 1700 than non-users for their medical costs between 2009 and 2011. The average length of in-hospital stay for VN service users was 19.4 days shorter than that of non-users. However, using VN services did not significantly influence the annual number of ambulatory care visits. Conclusion: The study has found that VN services are effective ways of providing community-based LTC services. We recommend LTC policy makers to further utilize VN services to deliver cost effective health care services.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• 제24권2호
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• pp.211-220
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• 1991

Finances of health insurance can be explained by factors determining benefit expense and premium collection. This study was conducted to analyze factors contributing to the financial status of rural health Insurance. Nationwide 134 health insurance associations except the six pilot project counties were analyzed and obtained the followings. 1. In univariate analysis, statistically significant variables that explain 1) outpatient benefit expenditures include public health center utilization, proportion of pregnant women. premium and collection rate of premium 2) inpatient benefit expenditures include public health center utilization, Proportion of old age, proportion of pregnant women, premium and collection rate of premium 3) profits include public health center utilization, proportion of old age, proportion of pregnant women and collection rate of premium. 2. In multiple regression analysis, statistically significant determinants in 1) outpatient benefit include premium and public health utilization 2) inpatient benefit include premium 3) profit include public health center utilization, premium and collection rate of premium.

• 대한지역사회영양학회지
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• 제7권6호
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• pp.863-871
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• 2002

To compare the costs incurred by infant feeding between mothers who breastfed their infants and those who fed them infant formula, a questionnaire survey was carried out to 136 mothers living in Seoul, Cheongju and Chungju who breastfed and 199 mothers who formula-fed their infants. The cost of formula-feeding was estimated based on the expenditures for formula and feeding apparatus, and the time needed to wash bottles and prepare formula. The cost of breastfeeding was estimated based on the expenditures for food for the additional nutritional intake of these mothers. The mean cost of formula-feeding was ￦ 1,870,125 during the first year of the baby＇s life. The food cost for the additional nutritional intake of the breastfeeding mothers was ￦ 203.004 per year. The extra medical cost for respiratory illnesses in the formula-fed group compared to the breastfed group was W 62,920 because the formula-fed infants required medical attention for respiratory illnesses more often than the breast-fed infants. Therefore, breastfeeding could save ￦ 1,730,041 during the first year of an infant＇s life. We may have underestimated the cost savings from breastfeeding because we did not take into account the potentially decreased costs of fertility control and the health benefits for mothers. as well as the decreased usage of water and gas. Analyses showed that breastfeeding is not only nutritionally advantageous, but also economically advantageous for families and society.