• Health Policy and Management
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-18
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• 2008

As medical insurance had been implemented for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) from January 1, 2005, this study investigated whether there had been any change in the amount of the medical care utilization of patients who undertook MRI before and after the insurance coverage, and was to examine factors affecting the amount of medical care utilization of MRI. Data were collected from patients who undertook MRI before and after the insurance coverage for a year at a general hospital in Kyeanggi-do. $X^2$ and t-test were used for the analysis of their general characteristics, the number of MRI, and its medical costs before and after the insurance coverage, and hierarchical multiple regression analysis for the factors affecting the amount of the medical care utilization of MRI. The results of this study were as follows. First, the number of MRI after the insurance coverage was significantly decreased. Second, there was no significant difference in the total medical costs of MRI after the insurance coverage, but a significant difference was found in patient's share of medical costs. Third, six variables were found to be affecting the amount of the medical care utilization of MRI, and the variables showed to lead the number of MRI decrease after the insurance coverage. These six factors explained 21.4% of the total number of MRI. As MRI had been covered by insurance, the use of MRI and patient's share of the costs were deceased, but the total medical costs were not affected. Reasons for that could be found in that MRI insurance, different from the case of CT insurance coverage, was allowed not to cover some items and the kinds of diseases subjected to the insurance coverage were extremely limited, lowering insurance prescription rate. In addition to that, the average medical cost of MRI was not changed after the insurance coverage. Therefore, as future measures for the MRI insurance, coverage, it should be considered to allow insurance coverage to no coverage items and to expand the scope of benefit coverage, or to lower patient's share of the costs. Furthermore, researches should be done to explore how recipients will act and how suppliers will react if the coverage is expanded, including expanding the scope of coverage and reducing patient's share of the costs, as well as to conduct research on its economic analysis according to case mix.

• 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.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.20 no.8
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• pp.1460-1465
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• 2016

Lots of costs threaten the sustainability of the national health-guarantee system. Despite research by the national center for disease control and prevention on health care dynamics with its auditing systems, there are still restrictions of time limitation, sample limitation, and, target diseases limitation. Against this backdrop, using huge volume of total data, many technologies could be fully adopted to the preliminary forecasting and its target-disease expanding of health. With structured data from the national health insurance and unstructured data from the social network service, we attempted to design a model to predict disease. The model can enhance national health and maximize social benefit by providing a health warning service. Also, the model can reduce the advent increase of national health cost and predict timely disease occurrence based on Big Data analysis. We researched related medical prediction cases and performed an experiment with a pilot project so as to verify the proposed model.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.225-231
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• 2021

Unmet healthcare is an important indicator to measure accessibility of healthcare services. To examine the latest status of unmet healthcare needs in South Korea, the four different data which is composed of nationally representative sample of South Korean population were used; the Korea Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KNAHANES, 2007-2019), the Community Health Survey (CHS, 2008-2019), the Korea Health Panel Survey (KHP, 2011-2017), and the Korean Welfare Panel Study (KOWEPS, 2006-2019). The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs were 5.8% (KNHANES), 5.3% (CHS), and 11.6% (KHP). Annual percentage change (APC) which identifies trend for the follow-up period was -9.5%, -8.0%, and -6.5%, respectively. The proportion of individuals reporting unmet healthcare needs due to cost were 1.1% (KNAHANES), 0.7% (CHS), 2.4% (KHP), and 0.4% (KOWEPS). The APC was -10.5%, -14.2%, -12.2%, and -19.6%, respectively. Compared to last year, the rate of unmet healthcare needs has declined in general. However, the low-income and the elderly population were reporting the highest rate of unmet health care needs, and the disparity between lowest and highest groups were remained. These results suggest that adequate benefit coverage is needed for low-income and elderly population.

• Research in Community and Public Health Nursing
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.465-502
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• 1989

The purpose of this study was to find out the general characteristics of school health teachers, the status of school health resources and the degrees of self-confident performance for the 124 school health teachers in Pusan City. Data was collected by means of questionaires from Aug. 1986 to Mar. 1987. The data were analyzed by use of percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson-correlation coefficient. The results of this study were as follows: 1 . General Characteristics of School Health Teachers (SHT) 1) The average of age of the SHT was 32.8 years old and 39.5% of them were from 30 to 34 years old. 2) The average for school nursing experience of the SHT was 7.9 years and 37.9% of them were from 5 to 9 years. 3) The 45.2% of them have not the clinical experience. 4) The 74.2% of them were graduated from the 3 years college of nursing. 2. Status of school health resources and nursing activities. 1) The average of student number was 2497.3 and class number was 45.2. 2) The average of school health budget was 1039000 won and 27.7% of school health budget expended on examination cost. 3) Only 29.0% of all schools have organization for school health. 4) The 84.7% of all schools have health clinic separately and 69.1% of schools have less than $33m^2$ sized. 5) The average of clinic visitor number was 2111.8 for 1 year. 6) Major problem was on digestive system. And other problems were skin, respiratory, musculo-skeletal system and dental problem. 7) The number of literal message was 14.4 times for 1 year. 3. The degree of the school health teachers' self-confidence. The school health teachers' self-confidence was deviced into 6 and the maximum degree was 4. 1) Program planning & evaluation; 2.8 2) Clinic management; 2.9 3) Health education, 3.0 4) Management of school environment; 2.7 5) Health care services; 2.7 6) Operating of school health organization; 2.4 4. Significances to the degree of self-confidence on school health nursing activities. 1) There was significant difference between clinical management and Religion (t=2.15 p<.05) 2) There was significant difference between Operating of school health organization and level of school (F=3.588 p<.05) 3) Program planning & evaluation: expending time for clinical management (r=-0.184 p<.05) expending time for health care services (r=0.273 p<.01) 4) Clinical management: use of separate health clinic (r=0.151 p<.05) 5) Health education: use of separate health clinic (r=0.170 p<0.5) 6) Health care services: No. of student (r=-0.144 p<0.5) No. of class (r=-0.160 p<.05) 5. The degree of the school health teachers' self-discipline. The school health teachers' self-discipline was devided into 2 and the maximum degree was 2. 1) Program planning & evaluation:1.8 2) Clinic management: 1.9 3) Health education: 1.9 4) Management of school environment: 1.7 5) Health care services: 1.8 6) Operating of school health organization.: 1.3 6. Significances to the degree of self-discipline on school health nursing activities 1) Program planning & evaluation; Level of nursing education (F=4.309 p<.01) 2) Clinical management: Level of nursing education (F=3.587 p<.05) 3) Operating of school health organization: School health organization (t=-2.68 p<.01) 4) Health care services: School health organization (t=2,58 p<.05) 5) School health performance: School health organization (t=2.32 p<.05) 6) Program planning & evaluation: School health experience (r=0.239 p<.01) Expending time for program planning & evaluation (r=-0.172 p<.05) 7) Clinic management: School health experience (r=0.249 p<.01) Expending time for dinic management (r=0.181 p<.05) No. of student (r=-0.158 p<.05) Expending time of program planning & evaluation (r=-0.199 p<0.5) 8) Health education: School health experience (r=0.234 p<0.1) Expending time of program planning & evaluation (r=-0.193 p<.05) 9) Management of school environment: Age of school health teacher (r=0.142 p<.05) School health experience (r=0.255 p<.01) 10) Operating of school health organization: Medicine Purchase (r=-0.163 p<.05) 11) Health care services: School health experience (r=0.148 p<.05) Medicine purchase (r=-0.229 p<.01) 12) Total school health performance: School health experience (r=0.200 p<.05) Medicine purchase(r=-0.168 p<.05) Based on the above results, the suggestions are as follows: 1) As the SHT take charge of the reasonable number of student, the students will have benefit of the good health service in quality. 2) It is recommended to use the health clinic separately and to arrange adequate place for good school health service. 3) It is necessary that the SHT participate budget for school health. 4) It is required to enhance self-confidence on school health nursing activities through continuous educational programs.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.265-271
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• 2017

Background: Health care services effort to provide alternative cardiac rehabilitation (CR) models to serve patients according to their preferences and needs. So, the present study aimed to assess and compare the effects of hospital-based and hybrid CR programs on chest pain intensity and discomfort in cardiac surgery patients. Methods: In this prospective study, 110 cardiac surgery patients were invited to the CR department of a hospital in the western part of Iran between March and July 2016. Patients were divided into two groups: hospital-based and hybrid CR. The hospital-based program included 26 sessions, and the hybrid program included 10 training sessions and exercise. The Brief Pain Inventory and Pain Discomfort Scale were used as research instrument, and data were analyzed using the paired t-test and ANCOVA. Results: The results indicated that both hospital-based and hybrid CR are effective in reducing the chest pain intensity and discomfort of cardiac surgery patients (P < 0.05). In addition, the comparison of scores before and after treatment using ANCOVA shows that no significant differences were observed between the two programs (P > 0.05). Conclusions: Traditional hospital-based CR delivery is still the first choice for treatment in developing countries. However, hybrid CR is as effective as a hospital-based program in reducing pain components and it includes only 38% of the total cost in comparison to hospital-based delivery. So, we recommend using hybrid CR according with the recommendations of American Heart Association about using CR for the management of angina symptoms.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.175-209
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• 2019

The bundled discounting which the dominant undertakings engage in is problematic in terms of competition restraint. Bundled discounts generally benefit not only buyers but also sellers. Specifically, bundled discounts usually costs a firm less to sell multiple products. In addition, Bundled discounts always provide some immediate consumer benefit in the form of lower prices. Therefore, competition authorities and courts should not be too quick to condemn bundled discounts and apply the neutral and objective standard in bundled discounting cases. Cascade Health v. Peacehealth decision starts ruling from this prerequisite. This decision pointed out that the dominant undertaking can exclude rivals through bundled discounting without pricing its products below its cost when rivals do not sell as great a number of product lines. So bundled discounting may have the anticompetitive impact by excluding less diversified but more efficient producers. This decision did not adopt Lepage case's standard which does not require the court to consider whether the competitor was at least as efficient of a producer as the bundled discounter. Instead of that, based on cost based approach, this decision said that the exclusionary element can not be satisfied unless the discounts result in prices that are below an appropriate measures of the defendant's costs. By adopting a discount attribution standard, this decision said that the full amount of the discounts should be allocated to the competitive products. As the seller can easily ascertain its own prices and costs of production and calculate whether its discounting practices exclude competitors, not the competitor's costs but the dominant undertaking's costs should be considered in applying discount attribution standard. This case deals with bundled discounting practice of multiple healthcare services by the dominant undertaking in healthcare market. Under the Korean healthcare system and public health insurance system, the price competition primarily exists in non-medical care benefits because public healthcare insurance in Korea is in combination with the compulsory medical care institution system. The cases that Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Law deals with, such as cartel and the abuse of monopoly power, also mainly exist in non-medical care benefits. The dominant undertaking's exclusionary bundled discounting in Korean healthcare markets may be practiced in the contracts between the dominant undertaking and private insurance companies with regards to non-medical care benefits.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.1-24
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• 2000

This study was conducted to examine utilization patterns and determinants of oriental medical services. Data were collected from 545 residents in Taegu city The results of this study are summarized as follows 1) 37.8% of subjects used oriental medical services in the past year. Especially, the female, the ages of 50 and 60 over, the single. low-educated. high-income class, white-collar class, medical insured tended to use more oriental medical services than another groups. 2) 46.7% of users of oriental medical services reported that number of visits in the past year was 2 - 5 times 37 1% of them was 1 times, and 4.5% over 10 times. 3) According to the reasons to choose the oriental medical facilities, most was 'on their own judgement'(48.8%) and 'by the advice of relatives and friends'(42.0%) Regarding to the objectives of using oriental medicine, 68.3% was 'treatment', 31.7% 'health counselling and promotion'. And among diseases of users, diseases of musculo-skeletal system was the highest(54.5%). 4) 57.9% of oriental medical services users had experience of utilizing western medicine on the same diseases. Among peoples with experiencing western medicine on the same diseases. 54.4% received oriental medical services 'in addition to western medicine', 45.6%'in place of western medicine 'And 41.2% of using both services reported that they had difficulty in deciding to choose the type of services -oriental medical services or western medicine-for their diseases. 37.3% of them answered that 'providing relevant information' was the most desirable measure to solve this problem, 27.3% 'establishment of effective referral system between oriental and western medical facilities '23.6% 'cooperative medical treatment systems in the same facilities', 11.8%'integration of oriental medicine into western medicine 5) According to the satisfaction level with each items of oriental medical services, the respondents had positive views on efficacy, kindness, and side-effects. They, however, had negative view on the cost of oriental medical services. 6) In regarding to the priority of improvement of oriental medical system,'expansion of insurance benefit package 'ranked first. 'expansion of insurance benefit Package 'ranked second, 'improvement of scientific methods and diagnostic technique 'third, and 'safety of herbal medicine' fourth in order. 7) The significant factors influencing the utilization of oriental medical services were kindness of oriental medical practitioners, efficacy , travel time, age To be brief, utilization rate of oriental medical services in urban area generally tends to be high. There, however, have been various barriers to limit oriental medical services, such as incomplete benefit package of oriental medical insurance and lack of coordination and referral system between oriental and western medical services, lack of scientific diagnostic procedures, high price etc . For the development of oriental medical services, Much attention to remove these limiting factors should be placed. In addition, kindness of oriental medical practitioners , which is expected to be more important factor in the consumer - focused health care environment than ever, should be kept high consistently. Since this study was conducted for specific residents of an urban city. further research including more sampling in different urban areas should be required to generalize the results of the study.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.44 no.5
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• pp.495-502
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• 2021

This study aims to provide basic data for elderly health insurance policy and medical radiation safety management by analyzing the general radiography usage and exposure dose of the elderly in Korea. The effective dose for each general radiography was calculated using the ALARA-GR program for 260 general radiography codes selected from 'National Health Insurance Care Benefit Cost'. The usage of general radiography was analyzed in the 2016 elderly patient data of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, and the effective dose for each general radiography was applied. The general radiography usage and exposure dose per person aged 65 years and over was 6.47 cases and 0.56 mSv. Females showed higher value than males as 7.15 cases and 0.66 mSv(p<.001). By age, those between 75 and 79 showed the highest number as 6.97 cases and 0.62 mSv(p<.001). Those who were supported by Medical Aid showed higher value than those who were insured by National Health Insurance as 8.82 cases and 0.76 mSv(p<.001). In addition, the ratio by radiography was in the order of Chest 20.85%, Knee Joint 15.58%, and L-spine 14.67%, and the exposure dose was L-spine 29.40%, Chest 15.82%, Abdomen 7.97%, and Entire Spine 7.20%. General radiography, which is widely used due to the high frequency of diseases in the elderly population should be taken into consideration when establishing health insurance policies. In addition, it is necessary to check whether the general radiography with high exposure dose is performed as a routine examination without considering medical necessity.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• no.37
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• pp.5-33
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• 2008

This study examines the use of medical care by the poor through analysing KNHANES III databases, and the focus of the study is on under-satisfaction of medical needs and the impact of the medicare system. The results of analysis are summerized as follows; the poor had generally suffered from poor health condition, and did not have economic resoure to satisfy the medical needs. But, the beneficiaries of the medicare used much more medical care than non-poor. The result of logistic regression suggest that the medicare affected significantly on increase of uses. Consquently, the medicare system effectively made up the lack of economic resoure of the poor. However, the Medicare did not sufficient to satisfy all the medical needs of the poor. Over 20% of the poor had experinced the abandonment of meical care uses, "the lack of econmic resource" was most important reason. The result of logistic regression suggest that all the poor such as Medicare I and Medicare II beneficiaries, and near-poor class had much more probabilities of giving up the use of medical care than non-poor. It is necessary to raise up the benefit level of the current medicare system such as the reduction of non-secured medical cost, the alleviation of user's burden etc.