• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.345-352
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• 2020

This study conducted a survey targeting 414 medical institution workers to identify the impacts of their emotional labor and the recognition level of medical service fee reduction influencing the reduction rate. The results were as follows. First, a review of the difference in the reduction rate by socio-demographic characteristics revealed that in both inpatient and outpatient reduction rate, there is a significant difference in the occupational description, working history at the current hospital, and the numbers of approved beds. Second, there is a correlation between emotional labor, the recognition level of medical service fee reduction, and the reduction rate. As a result of the analysis, there is a significant positive correlation between emotional labor and outpatient reduction rate, a significant negative correlation between the recognition level of medical service fee reduction and inpatient reduction rate, and a significant negative correlation between the recognition level of medical service fee reduction and outpatient reduction rate. Third, emotional labor has a significant positive effect on the inpatient reduction rate, and the recognition level of the medical service fee reduction has a negative effect on the inpatient reduction rate. The emotional labor also has a significant positive effect on outpatient reduction rate, and the recognition level of the medical service fee reduction has a significant negative effect on outpatient reduction rate.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.138-144
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• 2018

Background: Diagnostic imaging fee had been reduced in May 2011, but it was recovered after 6 months because of strong opposition of medical providers. This study aimed to analyze the behavior of medical providers according to fee changes. Methods: The National Health Insurance claims data between November 2010 and December 2012 were used. The number of exams per computed tomography was analyzed to verify that the fee changes increased or decreased the number of exams. Multivariate regression model were applied. Results: The monthly number of exams increased by 92.5% after fee reduction, so the diagnostic imaging spending were remained before it. But medical provider decreased the number of exams after fee return. After adjusting characteristic of hospitals, fee reduction increased the monthly number of exams by 48.0% in a regression model. Regardless type of hospitals and severity of disease, the monthly number of exams increased during period of fee reduction. The number of exams in large-scaled hospitals (tertiary and general hospital) were increased more than those of small-scaled hospitals. Conclusion: Fee-reduction increased unnecessary diagnostic exams under the fee-for-service system. It is needed to define appropriate exam and change reimbursement system on the basis of guideline.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.125-132
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• 1972

The status of health administration and medicare insurance program of 58 universities and colleges of 4-year course was studyed in 1971 and the following results were obtained; 1. The average number of students of 30 universities was $4,800{\pm}2,600$ and that of 36 colleges was $780{\pm}620$. 2. The types of health service facilities for the students varied widely according to the institutions, from an elaborate one, university health center, to a poor one, first aid room. 3. Thirty-six out of 58 institutions had some sort of health service facilities, either health center or health service room. And 14 out of 36 institutions had elaborate health service facilities such as university health center or student health center 4. The number of full time staff of the health center and that of the health service room were 2 to more than 10 and 0 to 3 respectively. 5. The range of student health service fee varied widely according to the institutions from \50 to \550 per student, per semester. The average cost of student health service fee at the institutions with health centers was $\300{\pm}150$ and that with health service rooms was $\200{\pm}150$ per student, per semester. 6. Utility rate of the student health service facilities at the institutions with health centers and with health service rooms were 1,200 to 1,400 and 3,900 to 4,100 per 1,000 students per year. 7. There was an obvious increasing tendency of tuberculosis prevalence rate in the students. 8. The institutions which had appointed hospitals for student medicare were 24; where the reduction rate of medical expenses for students varied from 10 to 50 per cent. 9. Students medicare insurance program was adopted by six universities which accomodated more than 2,000 students. 10. The range of student medicare insurance fee varied widely according to the institutions from \140 to \800 per student per year. Each of the six universities which had adopted the insurance program had each own's special regulations to apply for pay claims.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.35-69
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• 1995

The managerial environment of hospitals in Korea characterized by low levels of medical insurance fees is worsening by increasing government regulations as to the utilization of medical services, rising costs of labor, material, and medical equipments, growing patient expectations concerning the quality of services, and escalating competitions among large hospitals in the market. Hospitals should seek for their survival strategies in this harsh environment and they should have information about costs of their products in doing so. However, it has not been available due to the complexity of the production process of hospital services. The objectives of this study were to develop a service-based cost accounting model and to apply the developed model to a study hospital to obtain cost information of hospital services. A model commonly used for the job-order product cost accounting in the manufacturing industry was modified for the use in hospitals in Korea. Actual costs, instead of standard costs, incurred to produce a unit of services during a given period of time were estimated in the model. Data required to implement the model included financial information, statistics for the allocation of supportive cost center costs to final cost centers, statistics for the allocation of final cost center costs to services, and the volume of each services charged to patients during a study period. The model was executed using data of a university teaching hospital located in Seoul for the fiscal year 1992. Data for financial information, allocation statistics fo supportive service costs, and the volume of services, most of them in electronic form, were available to the study. Data for allocation statistics of final cost center costs were collected in the study. There were 15 types of evaluation and management service, 2, 923 types of technical service, and 2, 608 types of drug and material service charged to patients in the study hospital during the fiscal year 1992. Labor costs of each of seven types of pesonnel, material costs of 611 types of drugs and materials, and depreciation costs of 212 types of medical equipments, miscellaneous costs, and indirect costs incurred in producing a unit of each services were estimated. Medical insurance fees for basic services such as evaluation and management of inpatients and outpatients, injection, and filling prescriptions, and for operating procedures were found to be set lower than costs. Infrequent services which use expensive medical equipments showed negative revenuse as well. On the other hand, fees for services not covered by the insurance such as CT, MRI and Sonogram, and for laboratory tests were higher than costs. This study has a significance in making it possible for a hospital to obtain cost information for all types of services which produced income based on all types of expenses incurred during a given period of time. This information can assist the management of a hospital in finding an effective cost reduction strategy, an efficient service-mix strategy under a given fee structure, and an optimum strategy for within-hospital resource allocations.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.3-12
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• 1979

A survery was carried out in order to know the status of student health service and student medical insurance of universities and colleges in Korea from 1 July to 30 September. 1978. And the following results were obtained; 1. Out of seventy universities and colleges, 54.8% of them had student health service facility such as student health conte. (30.0%) or health room (24.8%). 2. Out of twenty-seven national and public universities and colleges, 44.4% of them had student health service facility and out of forty-three private universities and colleges, 60.5% of them had student health service facilities. 3. Each of 80.0% of 25 universities, 43.3% of 30 colleges and 33.3% of 15 junior colleges had student health service facility. 4. Major roles of student health service were physical examination (92.1%), health counselling (86.8%), primary medical care (78.9%), tuberculosis control (68.4%), insect and rodent control (52.6%), parasite control(47.4%), water source sanitation (44.7%), and dental health care (28.9%). 5. Out of 21 universities and colleges, 66.7% of them had full time doctor and 81.0% of them had full time nurse for student health center. And out of 17 universites and colleges, 5.9% of them had full time doctor and 33.3% of then had full time nurse for student health room. 6. The range of health fee was varied from 100 won to 1,400 won per student per semester and the average was 520 won. 7. Among 55 universities and colleges, 78.6% of them had carried out annual physical examination in 1977 and the rate of physical examination was 57.4%. 8. Out of 70 universities and colleges. 45.7% of them had tuberculosis control program and the prevalence rate was 6.0 per 1,000 students. 9. Student medical insurance program was developed by ten universities and one college among 25 universities and 45 colleges. 10. Student medical insurance benefit was varied according to university and college; the reduction rate of medical fee was 20% to 80% for not only in-patient but also out-patient. 11. The upper limit of pay claim was varied according to the university and college from 5,000 won to no-limitation for out-patient and from 30,000 won to no-limitation for in-patient. 12. The highest utility rate of student medical insurance program was found in university 'F' with the rate of 791 for out-patient and 12 for admitted patient per 1,000 students.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.609-621
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• 2020

This study identified the impacts of organizational commitment on medical service reduction rates by lifestyles of medical institution workers with a medium of environmental factors in a medical institution, and it conducted a survey targeting 300 medical institution workers in Jeolla-do, South Korea. The results are as follows. First, there was a significant difference in an organizational commitment by sociodemographic characteristics based on age, academic career, gender, marital status, occupational description, monthly earnings, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Second, there was a significant difference in environmental factors by sociodemographic characteristics based on marital status, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Third, there was a significant difference in the inpatient reduction rate based on the occupational description, years of employment, and the type of hospital. In the outpatient reduction rate, a significant difference was shown based on age, marital status, occupational description, the years of employment, and the type of hospital. Fourth, when analyzing the relationship between organizational commitment, environmental factors, and the reduction rate, there was a significant positive correlation between inpatient reduction rate and outpatient reduction rate. Fifth, when analyzing the impacts on the inpatient reduction rate by deploying organizational commitment and environmental factors at the same time, it was shown that the environmental factors mediated partially in organizational commitment and inpatient reduction rate. In the case of outpatient reduction rate, it was shown that the environmental factors mediated completely in organizational commitment and outpatient reduction rate. The present study is aimed to contribute to providing the baseline data for an efficient operational plan and effective workforce management of medical institutions.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.185-196
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• 2015

Background: Issues concerning with the classification accuracy of Korean Outpatient Groups (KOPGs) have been raised by providers and researchers. The KOPG is an outpatient classification system used to measure casemix of outpatient visits and to adjust provider risk in charges by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in managing insurance payments. The objective of this study were to refine KOPGs to improve the classification accuracy and to evaluate the refinement. Methods: We refined the rules used to classify visits with multiple procedures, newly defined chemotherapy drug groups, and modified the medical visit indicators through reviews of other classification systems, data analyses, and consultations with experts. We assessed the improvement by measuring % of variation in case charges reduced by KOPGs and the refined system, Enhanced KOPGs (EKOPGs). We used claims data submitted by providers to the HIRA during the year 2012 in both refinement and evaluation. Results: EKOPGs explicitly allowed additional payments for multiple procedures with exceptions of packaging of routine ancillary services and consolidation of related significant procedures, and discounts ranging from 30% to 70% were defined in additional payments. Thirteen chemotherapy drug KOPGs were added and medical visit indicators were streamlined to include codes for consultation fees for outpatient visits. The % of variance reduction achieved by EKOPGs was 48% for all patients whereas the figure was 40% for KOPGs, and the improvement was larger in data from tertiary and general hospitals than in data from clinics. Conclusion: A significant improvement in the performance of the KOPG was achieved by refining payments for visits with multiple procedures, defining groups for visits with chemotherapy, and revising medical visit indicators.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.123-136
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• 1993

The growth of radidly improving computer and information technology has a profound impact upon economical, social and cultural sectors. With the progress of information technology, information-telecommunication services are produced. This service is used in sending the information to order service-users, and search the need information. This case study considers information-telecommunication service as a consumer-innovation. Information telecommunication services are provided by firms involved in collection. HiTEL(High-Telecommunication) service represents a subset of this group in that the collection, processing and transmission is primarily in an electronic from. The purpose of this paper is concerned with examining the spatial diffusion process, the issues, and behavior to used in HiTEL service one of the information-telecommunication services in Kwangju. HiTEL service is one of the typical information-telecommunication services, and is begun in Seoul and Kwangju area from October 1991, and diffusing several cities and regions now. Diffusion process of HiTEL services in Kwangju showed the irregular pattern in major residential areas, particularly Daewei-dong, Dongun-dong present higher adoption rate than other area, and where functioned as a diffusion center, the social and economic characteristics of residential area have a critical effect on diffusion process. The major adoption areas are recently built residential area, apartment districts, and diffusion direction shows two directions according to development of residental area; one is to south, another is from northeast to southwest. In order to understand the use-behavior of HiTEL service, questionary survey was carried out. Most adopters have a concern to actual life, as HiTEL, information of telephonenumber, and Daewoo Dial-Van compared with other information service. But the actual use-frequency of service is very low. In use of Kwangju regional information service, the use-frequency of operator is very low because of the lack of advertisement, the lack of providing information, and the low-concerns for regional information. But most of adopters need the providing of various regional information as regional news, education, medical and cultural events, housing, city-transportation, and job market. Thus, in order to increase and diffuse the HiTEL service, the establishment of diffusion strategies and the scheme for solution of related issues are very important. The direct diffusion strategies are the diffusion of information-mind, establishment of diffusion and education center, providing of regional information. The scheme for solution of related issues revealed in operating process are reduction of rental fee, development of the related technology and services.

• 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.2 no.2
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• pp.221-237
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• 1992

The reasons for cost inflation in medical insurance expenditure are classified into demand pull inflation and cost push inflation. The former includes increase in the number of beneficiaries and utilization rate, while the latter includes increase in medical insurance fee and the charges per case. This study was conducted to analyze sources of increases of expenditure in medical insurance demonstration area by the period of 1982-1987 which was earlier than national health insurance and the period of national health insurance(1988-1990). The major findings were as follows: Medical expenditure in these areas increased by 9.4%(15.1%) annually between 1982 and 1990 on the basis of costant price(current price) and for this period, the yearly average increasing rate of expenses for outpatient care[10.5%(15.8%)] was higher than that of inpatient care [7.3%(12.6%)]. Medical expenditure increased by 6.3%(8.9%) annually between 1982 and 1987, the period of medical insurance demonstration, while it increased by 10.7%(18.9%) after implementing national health insurance(1988-1990). Medical expenditure increased by 35.9%(45.9%) between 1982 and 1987. Of this increase, 115.2%(92.1%) was attributable to the increase in the frequencies of utilization per beneficiary and 61.0%(68.1%) was due to the increase in the charges per case, but the expenditure decreased by 76.2%(60.2%) due to the reduction in the number of beneficiaries. Beteen 1988 and 1990, the period of national health insurance, medical expenditure increased by 21.2%(41.4%). Of this increase, 87.5%(46.4%) was attributable to the increase in the frequencies of utilization per beneficiary and 52.4%(73.4%) was due to the increase in the charges per case, and of the increase in the charges per case, 69.6%(40.8%) was attributable to the increase in the days of visit per case. Medical expenses per person in these areas increased by 78.2%(89.0%) between 1982 and 1987. Of this increase, 76.6%(69.1%) was attributable to the increase in the frequencies of utilization per beneficiary and 23.4%(30.9%) was due to the increase in the charges per case. For this period, demand-pull factor was the major cause of the increase in medical expenses and the expenses per treatment day was the major attributable factor in cost-push inflation. Betwee 1988 and 1990, medical expenditure per person increased by 31.2%(53.1%). Of this increase, 60.8%(37.2%) was attributable to the demand-pull factor and 39.2%(62.8%) was due to the increase in the charges per case which was one of cost-push factors. In current price, the attributalbe rate of the charges per case which was one of cost-push factors was higher than that of utilization rate in the period of national health insurance as compared to the period of medical insurance demonstration. In consideration of above findings, demand-pull factor led the increase in medical expenditure between 1982 and 1987, the period of medical insurance medel trial, but after implementing national health insurance, the attributable rate of cost-push factor was increasing gradually. Thus we may conclude that for medical cost containment, it is requested to examine the new reimbursement method to control cost-push factor and service-intensity factor.