• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.61-73
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• 2017

In the Health Insurance System of South Korea, patients must pay high out-of-pocket expenditures for the medical service by uninsured medical benefits. So, the government implemented a policy to relieve the burdens of patients by lowering the uninsured selective-medical treatment costs in August, 2014. This study investigate the policy effects of selective-medical treatment(SMT) on the medical service's usage and cost with severe lung cancer patients. The patients are selected in one university hospital(with 1,000 beds), between one year before and after policy implementation. The study find that the usages of outpatient(visit number) and inpatient (length of stay) are not changed by statistically significant. It means that there are no effect in medical service behavior between before and after the policy. In medical expenses, outpatients decreased in their out-of-pocket payments by policy, but total medical expenses and insured medical benefits is not changed, because of the increased another medical insurance fees. For inpatient, although the SMT costs are statistically significant decrease, the total out-of-pocket payments and insured medical expenses are not changed statistically significant. Those findings show that the political decision making about SMT made lowing the selective-medical expenses, but total insured cost and patient's out-of pocket money were not changed by the new increased medical insurance fees. It means that the policy about SMT gave no particular benefit for patients. So, it need another benefit plans to lower the medical expenses of severe lung cancer patients with a high medical service usage and much total medical expense.

• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.35 no.2
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• pp.73-101
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• 2012

This study attempts to assess the effects of childcare facilities and private education expenses on birth rate and also, to examine whether or not the quality and reliability of childcare facilities affect birth rate. Private education expenses are proxied by the number of private educational institutes or their employees. The study measures the quality and reliability of childcare facilities either by the number of employees per childcare facility or by the ratio of childcare facilities with less than 10 employees to total facilities. Empirical analysis is carried out with a cross-sectional data of 232 areas (si/gun/gu) in 2009. Empirical results indicate that the number of childcare facilities or their employees tended to increase birth rate, while private educational expenses had no effects on birth rate. It appears that the presence of good and reliable childcare facilities contributed to an increase in birth rate. The results provide several policy implications for an increase in fertility.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.119-126
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• 2021

Recently OTT video service has grown rapidly and has a negative impact on the growth of pay-TV subscribers. Consequently the substitution of OTT services for pay-TV services will begin. This study explores OTT usage patterns, dividing into three sectors (OTT service use, OTT usage volume, and paid-OTT service use), by considering users' demographice factors, smart device ownership, pay-TV subscription, and bundle service use, by employing the Mediapanel dataset. The results showed that age, income, smartTV usage, market size, cable/satellite subscribers, TV VOD expenses, movie VOD expenses, and mobile bundle use are associated with OTT service use. The results also showed that age, household sizes, tablePC usgage, cable/satellite subscribers, TV VOD expenses, other VOD expenses, and unlimited data plans are associated with OTT usage volume. Lastly the results showed that age, gender, income, tabletPC usage, cable subscribers, other VOD expenses, mobile bundle usage, and unlimited data plans are associated with paid-OTT service use.

• The Korean journal of internal medicine
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.1160-1168
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• 2018

Background/Aims: The Republic of Korea is a country where the hemodialysis population is growing rapidly. It is believed that the numbers of treatments related to vascular access-related complications are also increasing. This study investigated the current status of treatment and medical expenses for vascular access in Korean patients on hemodialysis. Methods: This was a descriptive observational study. We inspected the insurance claims of patients with chronic kidney disease who underwent hemodialysis between January 2008 and December 2016. We calculated descriptive statistics of the frequencies and medical expenses of procedures for vascular access. Results: The national medical expenses for access-related treatment were 7.12 billion KRW (equivalent to 6.36 million USD) in 2008, and these expenses increased to 42.12 billion KRW (equivalent to 37.67 million USD) in 2016. The population of hemodialysis patients, the annual frequency of access-related procedures, and the total medical cost for access-related procedures increased by 1.6-, 2.6-, and 5.9-fold, respectively, over the past 9 years. The frequency and costs of access care increased as the number of patients on hemodialysis increased. The increase in vascular access-related costs has largely been driven by increased numbers of percutaneous angioplasty. Conclusions: The increasing proportion of medical costs for percutaneous angioplasty represents a challenge in the management of end-stage renal disease in Korea. It is essential to identify the clinical and physiological aspects as well as anatomical abnormalities before planning angioplasty. A timely surgical correction could be a viable option to control the rapid growth of access-related medical expenses.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.23-30
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• 2019

Background: The health of the economically active population contributes to increased corporate productivity by reducing the productivity loss caused by disease and increasing job efficiency, which in turn is a national benefit. Since the economically active population is a concept encompassing workers and a source of economic development for a country, that population's health should be treated with importance not only from a personal standpoint but also at a national level. Methods: In this study, data of 11,007 adults aged 20 years and older who participate in economic activities were analyzed in the five-year Korea Health Panel Study from 2010 to 2014 including the number of dental visits and dental medical expenses. Results: Factors related to "gender," "education level," "age," "duty category," "income level," "employment type," "national health insurance," and "chronic disease status" of the economically active population are affected in relation to the number of visits and dental medical expenses. The number of dental visits increased with higher education levels (p<0.001), and the number of visits to the dentist increased with older age (p <0.001). Dental medical expenses were 91,806 Korean won (KRW) more for "white-collar workers" than for "blue-collar workers" (p<0.03), and 127,674 KRW more for "regular workers" than for "atypical workers" (p<0.02). Conclusion: When it is necessary to improve policies to enhance the efficiency of the distribution of health and medical resources in the overall balance of the dental health sector, we should try to identify various factors of oral health disorder due to income inequality among the classes according to the country's employment type in order to find ways to reduce the health gap among the social classes.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Building Construction
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2019

This study empirically verified whether or not employee education and information technology have impact on the enhancement of financial performance to Korean construction companies. As a result, the increasing of education & IT expenses turned out to be affected the improvement of sales performance. The influences of these increased expenses are effective at the only year just after expenditure. The positive effect of education & IT expenses increasing have an effect on operating profitability as well such as increasing of operating income. Additionally, the effect of education expenses are more positive in general construction & building construction than other subdivision of construction industry. The positive effect of IT expenses increasing in specialty construction industry overwhelm the other subdivisions. The results suggest that increased investment to the education & IT systems of Korean construction companies can lead improvement of sales and operating income.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.169-184
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• 2020

Purpose - This research is intended to analyze the current status and problems of tax benefits in the R&D sector and suggest ways to improve tax credit for research and manpower development expenses when various countries fiercely develop efforts to enhance national competitiveness through increased investment in R&D Design/methodology/approach - This study will examine the current status of the tax support system for domestic and foreign R&D, and suggest improvement measures to expand research and development activities in the future. Findings - First, a plan may be considered to abolish and perpetuate the sunset deadline for tax credit for research and manpower development expenses as in the case of the United States and Japan. This perpetuation can be a proactive measure to actively support long-term R & D investment in companies facing economic decisions under uncertainty. Second, it should be revised to raise the tax credit rate of large corporations, which are shrinking every year, compared to SMEs, so that both large corporations and SMEs can improve their international competitiveness and secure excellent technologies through R & D. Finally, the target technologies for each new growth engine and source technology should be expanded to various fields, including national cybersecurity enhancement technology, aviation engine technology, carbon emission and global cooling technologies, which are areas of interest in major overseas R&D countries, to help active R&D and investment in these areas. Research implications or Originality - This study can find a contribution in comparing and analyzing the national R&D tax support system and presenting improvement measures at a time when the benefits of tax credit for research and manpower development expenses of large companies are decreasing due to frequent tax law revisions and the government's factors of increasing tax revenues. In addition, recent research and development items and research technologies of foreign countries were analyzed by Nature's top 10 major science and technology issues, and advanced technologies that should be applied to target technology areas by new growth engine and source technology were specifically investigated and presented.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.205-224
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• 2020

Purpose - This study aimed to identify the effects of ownership structures on agency costs in internationally diversified firms listed on the KOSDAQ market. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 5,824 samples were finally selected and empirically analyzed for a total of nine years from 2011 to 2019, during which the International Accounting Standards had been mandatory for firms listed on the KOSDAQ market. Findings - The results of this study showed that the effects of ownership structures on the ratio of asset turnover are positive for the major share and foreign equity ratios of international diversified firms. Moreover, by selecting the ratio of entertainment expenses as a proxy for agency expenses, this study confirmed that the effects of the ownership structure of an international diversified entity on entertainment expenditure were determined to show a significantly negative relation to entertainment expenditure, thus indicating that the higher the ratio of major shareholders, the more appropriately control the expenditure of entertainment expenses through arbitrary private deviations of the management.Furthermore, considering the effect of the ownership structure on the expenditure of sales and administrative expenses as a proxy variable for agency costs, this study verified that the majority share ratio of international diversified firms was negative to the expenditure of sales and administrative expenses, confirming that the higher the share of major shareholders, the lower the selling and administrative costs, but insignificant.Finally, as a result of determining whether the ownership structure of an international diversified firm affects the holding of free cash, the majority share of this firm shows a significantly negative relation to the ratio of the holding of surplus cash, indicating that the higher the proportion of major shareholders, the more appropriately control the holding of the entity's free cash through arbitrary private deviance by the manager. Research implications or Originality - Major shareholders of an internationally diversified firm listed on the KOSDAQ market play a positive role in the firm's performance by properly controlling agency costs that may be incurred by the management.

• Journal of Oriental Neuropsychiatry
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• v.32 no.4
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• pp.337-343
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• 2021

Objectives: To investigate effectiveness and satisfaction of applying critical pathway (CP) to Hwa-byung outpatients. Methods: Subjects were 32 outpatients who were diagnosed with Hwa-byung between January 1 and 2021 to October 31, 2021. Among these patients, 18 patients were applied with CP and 14 patients received treatment without applying CP. Their medical records and administration records were retrospectively analyzed. Data were analyzed by mean, standard deviation, and t-test using SPSS 26.0 program. Results: Mean total treatment period significantly decreased in the CP group compared with the non-CP group. Medical expenses were classified by treatment period, per visit, and patient charges per type of visit. When analyzed specifically by detailed items, there was a decreasing tendency in total medical expenses, uncovered medical expenses, and patient charges but an increasing tendency in covered medical expenses, although some of these changes were not statistically significant. Satisfaction score increased in the CP group compared with the non-CP group in general, although not all increases were statistically significant. Conclusions: Applying CP may contribute to the reduction of medical expenses and improvement of medical service quality. Further research on the development of CP for various diseases and the application of CP under various circumstances is needed.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.184-191
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• 2022

This study aims to provide basic information necessary to find an efficient management plan for patients using auto insurance. The analysis was conducted on the five-year auto insurance medical expenses review data registered in the health care bigdata Hub from 2016 to 2020. As a result of the analysis, the number one composition ratio of auto insurance inpatient treatment expenses was treatment and surgery fees for Certified tertiary hospitals, hospitalization fees for general hospitals, hospitals and clinics, and treatment and surgery fees for oriental medical institutions and dental hospitals. outpatient treatment expenses was doctor's fee for medical institution, treatment and surgery fees for oriental medical institutions and dental hospitals. The ratio of medication, anesthesia, and special equipment significantly affected the cost of inpatient. And the ratio of physical therapy significantly affected the cost of outpatient.