• Korean Medical Education Review
• /
• v.24 no.1
• /
• pp.10-17
• /
• 2022

South Korea is not a wasteland of publicly funded health care-instead, it has a good medical social security system known as the national health insurance (NHI). The NHI of Korea has three unique features; (1) low premiums, low insurance fees, and low coverage; (2) obligatory designation of medical institutions; (3) and allowance of non-benefit services. These features have made hospitals and doctors interested in profit-seeking. However, the commercialization of medical institutions has taken place in both private- and public-established sectors. A basic problem of commercialization is the co-existence of the obligatory designation of medical institutions and non-benefit services. The problem became worse in the Kim Dae-Jung government because it officially permitted non-benefit services. Since 2000, the Korean government has consistently pursued benefit extension policies, but the coverage rates of the NHI have stagnated. In addition, premiums and current medical expenses have markedly increased because policy-makers have emphasized accessibility to the NHI, while ignoring important principles of medical social security such as a needs-based approach and patient-referral system. In order to resolve the commercialization problem, the obligatory designation of medical institutions to the NHI should be changed to a contract system, and non-benefit services should be prohibited at NHI institutions. We must re-establish the patient-referral system via a needs-based approach. We also need to build a primary healthcare system and public health policies. We should make a long-term plan for healthcare reform.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.147-158
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this paper is to review the empirical study results of conversion factors(unit prices) for relative values of health care services in the national health insurance system and establish optimal classification of health care institutions for feasible contract of conversion factors between National Health Insurance Corporation(NHIC) and provider groups, based on legal backgrounds and types of health care service delivery system. some empirical research evidences shows the validity of applying multiple conversion factors to annual contract for reimbursement in the national health insurance. Policy recommendations suggest that clinic, hospital, general hospital, tertiary hospital, dental clinic, oriental medical clinic, pharmacy, and public health centers would be a basic category of provider groups for a meaningful price contract between the NHIC and providers.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.22 no.4
• /
• pp.89-115
• /
• 2021

Korea's health care delivery system is based on the Medical law and the National Health Insurance Act. In order to efficiently operate limited medical resources, it is classified to use medical institutions according to the severity of the disease. The question is whether a tertiary care hospital can terminate a medical contract for a patient, if treatment for severe diseases has already been performed at a tertiary care hospital. In the case of termination of treatment, the Korean court has both a judgment that recognizes the right to terminate and a judgment that denies the termination. Among the U.S. rulings, there are rulings that order transfer to a skilled nursing facility or nursing home or home if acute treatment is no longer needed. Considering that medical resources are limited, it is necessary to acknowledge the right to terminate the contract of the medical institution when treatment by a medical institution is completed.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.17 no.12
• /
• pp.241-249
• /
• 2012

The rapid development of the current information and communication brings big changes and progress in the health service delivery system. And it is becoming the worldwide trend increasingly. As the name of medical information, by more rapid, detail and more quickly to the patients and diagnosis of the disease it provides not only a high level of health care services but also hospitals and related institutions are making increase the efficiency of the work. Among them, the Telemedicine, that system has many advantage which can expect the shorten the waiting time and the uniform high level of medical, etc. without visiting medical institutions. Especially, the most advantage is it can increase the accessibility of information about extensive medical, without regard to the time and place. But this is the reality, which compared speed the development of modern science and technology with lack of operational regulations and mindset. Current in our Medical Law, it regulates the Telemedicine, but it has Institutional, facility, and environmental constraints. Because, there is no detailed legal relationship. And it takes that in terms of a special form called by a non-face-to-face contact with medical practice rather than the scene. Therefore, in this paper will find a way out to activate the Telemedicine by presupposes the development potential is infinite and find the legal issues and improvements.

• Journal of Families and Better Life
• /
• v.28 no.1
• /
• pp.51-67
• /
• 2010

This study looked into the current conditions in Korean and Japanese care management for the elderly, cases of consumer counseling in these countries, and the supporting institutions for Japanese users regarding the use of care management for the elderly. The number of recipients of care management for the elderly in both Korea and Japan is growing every year, and more Japanese users receive various services compared to Korean users. The results of an analysis on consumer counseling regarding the use of Korean and Japanese care management revealed, two types of complaints: counseling for the improvement of the institution and complaints related to the procurement of service. Regarding the insurance system, the complaints were mostly related to affirmation of a rating and the burden incurred by cost-sharing. Regarding the use of service, such key impairment cases were related to in-service medical accidents, illegal acts including caregiver contract violations and forced retirement, careless service by workers, and human rights violations of the elderly. Japan has developed governmental and, related-administrative and business services as well as a local governmental system to redress customer impairment issues as this pertains to service for better quality care management. In addition, they have enlarged the locally closed service, provided exact information about the services offered, and improved service appraisal techniques. The Japanese cases will serve as a good reference to improve the Korean system. In particular, the construction of a system that reduces customer losses and the availability of more counseling information are urgently required to improve the system in terms of customer experiences when they seek care management.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.455-492
• /
• 2009

(Background) Recent biotechnological breakthroughs are shedding new lights on various ethical and legal issues about human biological material. Since Rudolph Virchow, a German pathologist, had founded the medical discipline of cellular pathology, issues centering around human biological materials began to draw attention. The issues involving human biological materials were revisited with more attention along with series concerns when the human genome map was finally completed. Recently, with researches on human genes and bioengineering reaping enormous commercial values in the form of material patent, such changes require a society to reassess the present and future status of human tissue within the legal system. This in turn gave rise to a heated debate over how to protect the rights of material donors: property rule vs. no property rule. (Debate and Cases) Property rule recognizes the donors' property rights on human biological materials. Thus, donors can claim real action if there were any bleach of informed consent or a donation contract. Donors can also claim damages to the responsible party when there is an infringement of property rights. Some even uphold the concept of material patents overtaking. From the viewpoint of no property rule, human biological materials are objects separated from donors. Thus, a recipient or a third party will be held liable if there were any infringement of donor's human rights. Human biological materials should not be commercially traded and a patent based on a human biological materials research does not belong to the donor of the tissues used during the course of research. In the US, two courts, Moore v. Regents of the University of California, and Greenberg v. Miami Children's Hospital Research Institute, Inc., have already decided that research participants retain no ownership of the biological specimens they contribute to medical research. Significantly, both Moore and Greenberg cases found that the researcher had parted with all ownership rights in the tissue samples when they donated them to the institutions, even though there was no provision in the informed consent forms stating either that the participants donated their tissue or waived their rights to ownership of the tissue. These rulings were led to huge controversy over property rights on human tissues. This research supports no property rule on the ground that it can protect the human dignity and prevent humans from objectification and commercialization. Human biological materials are already parted from human bodies and should be treated differently from the engineering and researches of those materials. Donors do not retain any ownership. (Suggestions) No property rule requires a legal breakthrough in the US in terms of donors' rights protection due to the absence of punitive damages provisions. The Donor rights issue on human biological material can be addressed through prospective legislation or tax policies, price control over patent products, and wider coverage of medical insurance. (Conclusions) Amid growing awareness over commercial values of human biological materials, no property rule should be adopted in order to protect human dignity but not without revamping legal provisions. The donors' rights issue in material patents requires prospective legislation based on current uncertainties. Also should be sought are solutions in the social context and all these discussions should be based on sound medical ethics of both medical staffs and researchers.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.16 no.2
• /
• pp.159-193
• /
• 2015

Owing to causes such as population aging, increased use of various medical devices, long-term hospitalization of various patients with reduced immune function such as cancer, diabetes, and organ transplant patients, and the growing size of hospitals, hospital infections are continuing to increase. As seen in the MERS crisis of 2015, hospital infections have become a social and national problem. In order to prevent damage due to such hospital infections, it is necessary to first strictly implement measures to prevent hospital infections, while, on the other hand, providing proper relief of damage suffered due to hospital infections. However, the mainstream attitude of judicial precedents relating to hospital infection cases has been judged to in fact shift responsibility over damages due to hospital infections on the patient. In light of the philosophy of the damage compensation system, whose guiding principle if the fair and proper apportionment of damages, there is a need to seek means of drastically relaxing the burden of proof on the patient's side relative to conventional legal principles for relaxing the burden of proof, or the theory of de facto estimation. In relation to such need, the German civil code (Burgerliches Gesetzbuch), which defines contracts of medical treatment as typical contracts under the civil code, and has presumption of negligence provisions stipulating that, in cases such as hospital infections which were completely under the control of the medical care providers, if risks in general medical treatment have been realized which cause violations of the life, body, or health of patients, error on the part of the person providing medical care is presumed, was examined. Contracts of medical treatment are entered into very frequently and broadly in the everyday lives of the general public, with various disputes owing thereto arising. Therefore, it is necessary to, by defining contracts of medical treatment as typical contracts under the civil code, regulate the content of said contracts, as well as the proof of burden when disputes arise. If stipulations in the civil code are premature as of yet, an option may be to regulate through a special act, as is the case with France. In the case of hospital infection cases, it is thought that 'legal presumption of negligence' relating to 'negligence in the occurrence of hospital infections,' which will create a state close to equality of arms, will aid the resolution of the realistic issue of the de facto impossibility of remedying damages occurring due to negligence in the process of occurrence of hospital infections. Also, even if negligence is presumed by law, as the patient side is burdened with proving the causal relationships, such drastic confusion as would occur if the medical care provider side is found fully liable if a hospital infection occurs may be avoided. It is thought that, alongside such efforts, social insurance policy must be improved so as to cover the expenses of medical institutions having strictly implemented efforts to prevent hospital infections in the event that they have suffered damages due to a hospital infection accident, and that close future research and examination into this matter will be required.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.147-172
• /
• 2019

With the provision of the original text information disclosure service, the time spent on determining the disclosure of the original text information decreased, and the number of original text information disclosure significantly increased. In public institutions, the risk of the exposure of personal information also increased. In this study, the status of personal information protection in the original text information disclosure service was investigated. Moreover, the causes of the exposure of personal information were analyzed, and improvements were proposed. The survey presented the following results. First, 13% of the original text information collected contains personal information, which is the nondisclosure information. Second, among the original text information that includes personal information, the original text information, including the personal information of the public official, was the most important. In particular, many records about vacation and medical leaves were found. Third, there were many cases in which information about the individual of the representative was exposed in the agency that deals mainly with the contract work. Fourth, a large volume of personal information was not detected by filtering personal information. Upon analyzing the cause of the exposure of personal information, the following improvements are suggested. First, privacy guidelines should be redesigned. Second, the person in charge of the task of deciding whether or not to disclose original text information should be trained further. Third, the excessive disclosure of information based on the government's quantitative performance should be eased. Fourth, the filtering function of the personal information of the original text information disclosure system should be improved.