• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.26
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• pp.31-39
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• 2007

Background and main issue: In the Korean insurance market, an outstanding issue is the decrease of margin of risk ratio. This affects the solvency and profitability of insurance companies. Insurance medicine, which has been developed in Western countries, is so-called medical risk selection or medical underwriting. Medical risk selection is based on clinical follow-up study and mortality analysis methodology. Unfortunately, there have been few clinical follow-up studies, and no intercompany disease analysis system is available in the Korean insurance market. In practice, we use underwriting guidelines, which were developed by some global reinsurance companies. However, these guidelines were developed under clinical follow-up studies performed abroad. So, we cannot rule out underestimation of excess mortality factors such as mortality ratio, excess death rate, and life expectancy. It is necessary to perform medical assessment in claims administration. Comparing the insured's statement by medical records with products' benefit according to this procedure, we can make sound claim decisions and participate in the role of sound underwriting. We can call this scientific procedure as the verification of medical claims review. Another area of medical claims review is medical counsel for claims staff. Result: There is another insurance medicine in addition to medical risk selection. Independent medical assessment by medical records of insured is medical claims review. Medical claims review is composed of verification and counsel.

• The Journal of the Korean life insurance medical association
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• v.32 no.1
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• pp.8-14
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• 2013

Evidence-based medicine(EBM) or evidence-based health care has been used in clinical medicine. Recently, it also has been applied to areas of social medicine such as independent medical examination. Insurance medicine is one of social medicine, as for it's role is maintenance of sound insurance system or for insured of life insurance. Practical application of EBM to the insurance medicine are; confirming question, finding evidence, and evaluation that selected evidence is best or not in terms of practical aspect.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.247-254
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• 2013

Purpose: In Korea, the entire population must enroll in the national health insurance system, and those who are classified as having a lower socioeconomic status are supported by the medical aid system. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association of the medical insurance status of gastric cancer patients with their survival after gastrectomy. Materials and Methods: A total of 247 patients who underwent surgical treatment for gastric cancer between January 1999 and December 2010 at the Seoul Medical Center were evaluated. Based on their medical insurance status, the patients were classified into two groups: the national health insurance registered group (n=183), and the medical aid covered group (n=64). The survival rates were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: The median postoperative duration of hospitalization was longer in the medical aid covered group and postoperative morbidity and mortality were higher in the medical aid group than in the national health insurance registered group (P<0.05). The overall 5-year survival rate was 43.9% in the medical aid covered group and 64.3% in the national health insurance registered group (P=0.001). Conclusions: The medical insurance status reflects the socioeconomic status of a patient and can influence the overall survival of gastric cancer patients. A more sophisticated analysis of the difference in the survival time between gastric cancer patients based on their socioeconomic status is necessary.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.77-96
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• 2010

Objectives : This paper recommends a global budget based payment system for reimbursing oriental medical services in the national health insurance. Methods : We analyzed previous research outcomes related to oriental medical services and payment system We reviewed the experiences of other countries' global budget system in terms of their strength and weakness. In addition, we developed a reimbursement method for oriental medical services based on global budget. Results : Our reviews focused on global budget system of Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Taiwan. The estimation of global budget in the national health insurance was described in two scenarios. First scenario was to allocate oriental medical services in scale after signing a contract for global budget. In this case, 4.16% of the national health insurance expenditure was allocated for the oriental medical services. Second scenario was to estimate the global budget in a historical context. As a result, the first scenario in total budget was higher than the second, and we proposed a retrospective adjustment method for the gap between the budget and the actual expenditure Conclusions : The payment system for oriental medical services is recommended to shift from fee-for-service to global budget.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.175-188
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to confirm the reasons why the medical institutes avoid the traffic accident victims covered by the automobile insurance. For this purpose, a university hospital was sampled to comparatively analyze days of hospitalization, average medical cost per day, ratio of optional medical cost, average cost by injury/age group/department, distribution of MRI photographing, etc., between health insurance and automobile insurance patients. Accordingly, in order to assure automobile patients of a reasonable rights of medical services, it is deemed necessary to arrange a fair system encouraging them reduce the days of their hospitalization as well as a complementary mechanism preventing unnecessary expensive medical services due to the hazard.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.130-158
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• 1993

This study was written to discover the changes that may exist in the contents of medical services after introduction of health insurance system, and to identify the net-effect of health insurance system on medical services. Uncomplicated nornmal delivery and appendectomy patients were divided into 4 groups, the non-insured in pre-NHI periods(group A), the insured of health insurance for employees in pre-NHI periods(group B), the insured of regional health insurance for city residents in post-NHI periods(group C) and the insured of health insurance for employees in post-NHI periods(group D). The mehtod of matching was applied to control for major demographic differences among these 4 groups of each disease. In pre-NHI period, the medical services and the variation of medical services of the non-insured were compared with those of the insured. The difference between the change of medical services from group A to those of group C, and the change of medical services from group B to those group D is defined as the net-effect of health insurance. The results are as follows. First, in length of stay after delivery or operation, total length of stay, some laboratory examination, amount of several drugs used in appendectomy patients, frequency of sitz bath in delivery patients, there was net-effect of health insurance in increasing direction. Second, length of stay after delivery or operation, total length of stay, some laboratory examination, amount of several drugs used in appendectomy patients and frequency of sitz bath in delivery patients were significantly more in the insured than in the non-insured group in pre-NHI period. Third, the variation of medical services of post-NHI period was not less then those of pre-NHI period. Fourth, antenatal care on which the third party does not pay and the patient pays for all, was diffrerent by socioeconomic and educational level of patients.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
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• v.24 no.4 s.36
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• pp.485-495
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• 1991

This study examined the effects of referral requirements for insurance patients which have been enforced since July 1, 1989 when medical insurance coverage was extended to the whole population except beneficiaries of medical assistance program. The requirements are mainly aimed at discouraging the use of tertiary care hospitals by imposing restrictions on the patient's choice of a medical service facility. The expectation is that such change in the pattern of medical care utilization would produce several desirable effects including increased efficiency in patient care and balanced development of various types of medical service facilities. In this study, these effects were assessed by the change in the number of out-patient visits and bed-days per illness episode and the share of each type of facility in the volume of services and the amount of expenditures after the implementation of the new referral system. The data for analysis were obtained from the claims to the insurance for government and school employees. The sample was drawn from the claims for the patients treated during the first six months of 1989, prior to the enforcement of referral requirements, and those of the patients treated during the first six months of 1990, after the enforcement. The 1989 sample included 299,824 claims (3.6% of total) and the 1990 sample included 332,131 (3.7% of total). The data were processed to make the unit of analysis an illness episode instead of an insurance claim. The facilities and types of care utilized for a given illness episode are defined to make up the pathway of medical care utilization. This pathway was conceived of as a Markov Chain process for further analysis. The conclusion emerged from the analysis is that the enforcement of referral requirements resulted in less use of tertiary care hospitals, and thereby decreased the volume of services and the amount of insurance expenses per illness episode. However, there are a few points that have to be taken into account in relation to the conclusion. The new referral system is likely to increase the use of medical services not covered by insurance, so that its impact on national health expenditures would be different from that on insurance expenditures. The extension of insurance coverage must have inereased patient load for all types of medical service organizations, and this increase may be partly responsible for producing the effects attributed to the new referral system. For example, excessive patient load for tertiary care hospitals may lead to the transfer of their patients to other types of facilities. Another point is that the data for this study correspond to very early phase of the new system. But both patients and medical care providers would adapt themselves to the new system to avoid or overcome its disadvantages for them, so as that its effects could change over time. Therefore, it is still necessary to closely monitor the impact of the referral requirements.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.132-144
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• 2013

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the medical expense change and influencing factors after introducing longterm care insurance system. The study period was 2 years before and after introduction of the system. Methods: We analyzed data collected from two divided group lived in Incheon. Four hundred and eighty-five elderly who received long-term care wage for one year were selected for experimental group. For control group, 1,940 elderly were selected by gender and age stratified random sampling. Difference-In-difference analyses was used for evaluating policy effectiveness. Also multiple regression analyses were conducted to identify the factors associated with total medical expenditures. The control variables were demographic variables, economic status, diseases, and medical examination variables. Results: Difference-in-difference analyses showed that total average medical expenses among long-term patients has decreased by 61.85%. Of these, the hospitalization expenses have decreased by 91.63% and the drug expenses have increased by 31.85%. Multiple regression analyses results showed that total average medical expenses among long-term patients have significantly decreased by 46.5% after introducing the long-term care insurance. The hospitalization expenses have significantly decreased by 148.5%, whereas the drug expenses have increased by 53.6%. And outpatient expenses have increased by 10.4%, but the differences were not statistically significant. Conclusion: The results showed that total medical expenses and hospitalization expenses have decreased after introducing the long-term care insurance. These results could support the opinion that the health insurance spending among long-term patients will be reduced gradually by long-term care insurance through changing medical demand.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.87-99
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• 2007

Background : Most traditional Korean doctors use "Packed Herbal Medicine", which is made from boiling various herbs together. However, the current insurance system doesn't cover the act of making packed herbal medicine. Therefore it is urgent for these doctors to study and find the best and most logical insurance program to cover the Packed Herbal Medicine system. Objectives : The purposes of this study were to investigate whether Announced System of Herb Price is proper for stability of medical herbs's price. Methods : This study made these following results by studying medical herbs's price of KOMD(The korea oriental medicine distribution company) from 2004 March to 2007 March The results are summarized as follows ; The 50 most frequently used herbs were chosen from the 831 standard prescriptions according to 26 pre-determined specific diseases. These prescriptions are considered the most important for this study and insurance purposes. fluctuations of fifty medical herbs which were used much about a predetermined list of 831 prescriptions are multiple function not linear equation. fluctuations of fifty medical herbs which were used much about a predetermined list of 831 prescriptions are different according to time. Therefore, to notify medical herbs's price is valid method for stability of medical herbs's price.

• The Korea Journal of Herbology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.1-10
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• 2006

Objectives : Recently, the total medical expenses of the korean oriental medical service in national health insurance is on the increase every year. Herbal medicines are one of the major methods of the medical treatment. But the expenses of these herbal preparations that can receive benefits from insurance system are decreasing. Methods : In this research, we obtained statistical data of the benefit states of herbal preparations in herbal heath insurance during year 2001-2003 from Health Insurance Review Agency. We analyzed top twenty main diseases in herbal health insurance and mainly used prescription in these diseases. Results : There were wide differences in the application of prescriptions among diseases. For example, musculoskeletal diseases occupied an important position and Ojucksan took more than 50 percentage. Conclusion : We hope that this study could be a basic data for improving the benefit system of herbal health insurance and further studies should be carried out subsequently.