• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.93-103
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• 2008

The tendency of having fewer or no children and increasing number of single household will make the protection of the elderly with geriatric disease even harder in the future. Nursing home can provide long-term care for those who can-not be cared by the family. Korean government has been changing welfare policy for the elderly to cope with the changing needs of them regarding nursing home and geriatric disease. Researchers from various field also showed great interest in nursing home. The purpose of this study is to analyze the number and contents of theses and papers regard-ing nursing home in the 12 journals, to find out overall the research streaming of the theme, method, subject, and district of the papers in the journals. Data were collected by using keyword through library database. 246 thesis and 116 papers published from 1990 to 2006 were analyzed in 7 categories, and 66 papers in the journals were used on the content analysis for lading out research streaming. As results, research streaming according to 5 periods were identified. The most frequent subjects of theses regarding nursing home are nursing home systems and policies. Otherwise, the various subjects of papers in the journals have been deal with, especially plans of nursing home and spacial behavior of the elderly and staffs' satisfaction. In the future, the research subjects related to the nursing home should deal with total space plan as living environment for the elderly and work environment for the staffs according to privacy, spatial use and behavior, culture and lifestyle in Korea, and so on.

• Journal of the Korean housing association
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.27-37
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• 2013

Because of rapid aging, housing stability of elderly household is becoming an important social problem. The population of the elderly people was 11.3% and that of the elderly household was 23.2%, about 407 million, in 2010. Yet, social policies for elderly people are focusing on the household who takes care of the elderly people, not on the elderly headed households. These policies fail to reflect the reality. Housing satisfaction of the elderly household is different based on the tenure type and the satisfaction can be further affected by the types of elderly household within the same tenure group. Thus, strengthening the policies for the elderly headed households as well as differentiating the policies based on the types of household is required in order to meet the needs of the elderly households. For the elderly household living in a rent house in a city, a housing voucher is needed and for the low income elders who own their houses, housing renovation is required. Public housing affects only the residential satisfaction of single elderly households, not for all elderly households probably because public housing does not meet the demand of the elderly households appropriately. Since the elderly households wanting to move is noticeably small, a policy that provides proper facilities within the elders' neighborhood is most necessary. Also, in order to lessen the burden of housing expenses of the elders with low income, a public housing policy, in which 2-3 people living together in one public housing, needs to be examined.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.119-142
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• 2007

Although Korea joined OECD in 1996, there has still seen much unbalance in medical care and welfare standard between urban and rural area. The unbalance of medical demand between urban and rural area deepened low utilization of rural hospitals. So it caused many hospital's failure and conversion in rural area. Many rural hospitals are in difficulty managing business because of low medical demand along with the shortage of medical manpower, medical equipment and facilities. The objectives of this study were to reveal the cause of low utilization of hospitals in rural area, and to increase utilization of those hospitals. In this study the improvement methods of rural hospital's utilization were presented by examining were placed in difficult management condition, in respect of hospital's management conditions, manpower input, patient medical treatment record, financial record, and actual output. The causes of rural hospital's low utilization were as follows; 1) changes in number and structure of population 2) rural people's preference for large hospitals and hospitals which located in urban area 3) rural hospitals lacking in hospital management skill. Consequently rural hospital's operation condition got more and more deteriorated. To raise rural hospital's utilization, method for social policy, method for health policy, and intrinsic method of hospitals were presented in turn. For rural residents to utilize medical service conveniently, it is necessary for rural hospitals operated normally. So government must insist that rural hospitals solve the problems which come out from their internal management problems. And also these rural hospitals should be supported and nurtured by the government until their management is operated normally.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.366-375
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• 2016

This study aims to investigate the impact of total, native-born, and foreign-born employment rates on the increases of GDP and per capita GDP for 24 OECD countries out of 34 countries depending on data availability. The panel data analysis is formed by a fixed-effects model which allows dummy variable in it to permit the intercept term to vary over time-series and cross-sectional units. Empirical evidences obtained by simple and multiple panel regressions reveal that the contribution to increasing of GDP by foreign-born employment is obviously lower than the one by native-born employment. And, native-born labor is substituted by foreign-born labor. It also has to be mentioned that the labor is playing a key role in increasing in national income. And, therefore, labor-related policy should be concerned on decreasing in labor productivity and segmentation of labor market resulted from inflow of foreign labor. It means that labor-related policy has to take care of not only the magnitude, but also the quality of foreign-born labor.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.133-144
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• 2018

Objectives Since the health insurance coverage for traditional Korean medicine is very low, some physicians and researcher have suggested that government's institutional support is needed for korean medicine field. Therefore We examine the use of traditional medicine and western medicine in Taiwan, which operates a similar health insurance system to Korea. Methods We selected several studies from Pubmed and NHIRD, that could be used to numerically evaluate the use of traditional medicine. We reviewed the current status of medical use in Taiwan and compare it with that of Korea. Results Through a total of 87 studies, We found that 26.59%~31% of Taiwanese use Traditional medical institutions more than once a year, and the use of traditional medicine has been increasing since 2000. In adults than children, in women than men, the use rate of traditional medicine was high. Especially, herbal medicine was the most common intervention, accounting for 70% of traditional medical care. Conclusions The core of low insurance coverage for traditional Korean medicine is in lack of coverage for herbal medicine. Taiwan's case shows that the unmet demand for traditional Korean medicine of the Korean population can exist widely.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-30
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• 2009

Korean medical fee contract system between the insurer and healthproviders was introduced in 2000. However, a continuous discord among contracting parties concerned and an irrational operation of an arbitration committee of Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs (MIHWAF) have made it difficult for them to reach to an agreement over last 8 years. The purpose of this study is to observe the current problems of contract system from the view of health insurance law and actual examples. Furthermore, I examined the of breakdown of negotiation by analyzing the eligibility of contracting parties, rationality of Resource Based Relative Value System (RBRVS) and contracting method and fairness of arbitration method in case of negotiation rupture. The results were as follows: First, since the introduction of medical fee contract system, there has been a problem in that both the president of National Health Insurance Corporation (NHIC) and health care provider association have not held strong negotiation power. Second, the frequent changes and notifications of Relative Value Units (RVUs) without any mutual consent between the insurer and provider association negatively have influenced the conversion factors and finally hindered the agreement of contract. Third, a current process that the conversion factors are mediated and determined at the arbitration committee of MIHWAF in the case of contract breakdown between contracting parties has some flaw in that the irrational composition of committee provoked the lack of fairness and objectivity of mediation. Fourth, we can not prospect a satisfactory outcome of arbitration committee because the mediation always has failed to proceed smoothly due to boycott of both committee members from insurer and providers over last 8 years. As a result, we have to make an every effort to resolve problems mentioned above and then dream of an advanced national health insurance system.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.207-218
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• 2016

Background: This study was performed to identify factors associated with the utilization of tests for diabetes complication and hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) among diabetes patients in Jeollanam-do, Korea. Methods: The study subjects were 2,310 diabetes patients participated in 2014 community health survey in Jeollanam-do, Korea. Dependent variables were the utilizations of fundus examination, microalbuminuria test, and HbA1c test. The used statistical analysis methods were chi-square test and hierarchical regression analysis with weight in consideration of complex sample design. Results: The utilization rates of fundus examination, microalbuminuria test, and HbA1c test were 25.8%, 27.4%, and 12.3%, respectively. In the results of hierarchical regression, fundus examination was significantly related to age, education level in predisposing factors, residential area in enabling factors and recognition of blood sugar, drug therapy, and subjective health status in need factors. Microalbuminuria examination was significantly related to monthly income, residential area in predisposing and health screening, recognition of blood sugar, drug therapy, diabetic education, number of chronic disease, and subjective health status in need factors. HbA1c examination was significantly related to age, education level, marital status in predisposing factors, residential area in enabling factors and drinking, recognition of blood sugar, drug therapy, and diabetic education in need factors. Conclusion: The results of this study were shown that perception of their disease seriousness, education about diabetes management, and accessibility of tests were important to utilization of test for diabetes complication and HbA1c. It might be necessary to the develop and strength strategies for enhancing the utilization of tests for diabetes complication and management in diabetes patients.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.451-465
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• 2012

In order to strengthen assurance of National Health Insurance, co-payment should be reduced. This can happen with collaborative efforts of patients, medical institutes, and government altogether at the same time. This research applied Dutton(1986)'s medical service research model with high R-square, and analyzed 2008 Korea Health Panel Data (Beta Version 1), that was examined by Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs and National Health Insurance, in order to figure out influential variables on co-payment. In result of Multiple Linear Regression Analysis, R-square was 46.7%, the older the age, the patients who had surgery, the longer days of hospital treatment are, the higher gross income of a household is, the more hospitalized in upper grade general hospitals, and the more upper grade rooms and selecting a doctor are used. The results have statistical significance. When conducting research applying medical service research model, there is a need to apply Dutton(1986)'s medical service research model with high R-square. In order to strengthen assurance of National Health Insurance, first conditions should be that patients are hospitalized in upper grade general hospital, and at the same time, are patients who had surgery with long stay of hospitalization. In addition, if proven that patients used upper grade rooms and selecting a doctor due to lack of regular treatment and rooms, for certain number of days of such hospitalization, it is suggested to be provided with health care insurance in upper grade rooms and selecting a doctor in calculating co-payment limit.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.275-296
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• 2012

Graduate School of Public Health, Seoul National University The national health insurance system in Korea is characterized as relatively high out-of-pocket payments, which are the principal source of catastrophic health expenditure (CHE). The objectives of this study are to estimate the incidence of household CHE and to clarify the characteristics that affect the occurrence and recurrence of household CHE using the Seoul Welfare Panel Survey database for 2008 and 2010. Thresholds to estimate CHE were 10% and 20% of the total household income (T/X), and 25% and 40% of the income excluding food share (T/Y). Determinants of the occurrence and recurrence of CHE at the threshold of T/X=10% were analysed using multiple logistic regression models. Out of the 3,665 households that responded in 2008 survey, households with CHE were 12.07% (T/X${\geq}$10%), 5.34% (T/X${\geq}$20%), 6.84% (T/Y${\geq}$25%), and 4.44% (T/Y${\geq}$40%). Risk factors associated with household CHE included living with a spouse, non-Medicaid beneficiary, householder unemployment, low household income, the number of disabled members, poor subjective health, and the number of chronic diseases. A total of 41.78% of households with CHE in 2008 repeatedly experienced CHE in 2010. Risk factors of CHE recurrence included decreased household income and an increase in chronic diseases over the two time periods, the number of members with disability or chronic diseases, and the presence of cancer patients in 2008. Households with lower socioeconomic and health status had a higher financial burden on health care than do their counterpart households. There is a need to enhance society-wide financial protection from health spending among vulnerable citizens in Seoul, particularly, households with low income, disabled members or cancer patients.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.333-342
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• 2016

Background: The use of therapeutic materials based on new health technology has increased in recent years in the field of medicine, raising concerns for medical practitioners regarding increased spending on the new therapeutic materials amid the rapid population ageing and increase of chronic diseases in Korea. While therapeutic materials have significant importance in the health care system, they have not been given appropriate attention in the academic world of Korea. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that affect the growth of expenditure on therapeutic materials and to derive implications for an effective management considering the diversity of therapeutic materials. Methods: Using the claims data of the National Health Insurance Services, specific utilization patterns of groups of therapeutic materials in the middle classification level of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service from 2007 to 2014 were analyzed. Four categories (J5083: drug eluting coronary stent, D0302: nonmetallic anchor, K6014: gauze, K6023: gauze) that exhibit unique patterns with respect to price and volume were selected. Then, decomposition analysis was performed to identify the largest contributor to the spending growth by dividing the products into existing, new, and abandoned products for the period between 2010 and 2013. Results: The effect of new products had larger impact on spending growth than the effect of core items in drug eluting coronary stent (J5083) and nonmetallic anchor (D0302). In addition, existing products in general included items priced relatively lower when compared with another item manufactured by the same company. In the gauze category, however, existing products had the largest impact on expenditure and the effect of volume was greater than that in other categories. Conclusion: This study provides evidence that appropriate management measures classified by the characteristics of therapeutic materials are required for therapeutic materials pricing and reassessment in Korea.