• 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.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.77-92
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• 2011

Objectives : This study examined the health policy researchers' needs and their accessibility towards health insurance claim datasets according to their academic capacity. Methods : An online questionnaire to capture relevant proxy variables for academic needs, accessibility, and research capacity was constructed based on previous studies. The survey was delivered to active health policy researchers through three major scholarly associations in South Korea. Seven-hundred and one scholars responded while the survey as open for 12 days (starting on December 20th, 2010). Descriptive statistics and logistic regression analysis were carried out. Results : Regardless of the definition for operational needs, the prevalent needs of survey respondents were not met with the current provision of claim data. Greater research capacity was shown to be correlated with increased demand for claim data along with a positive correlation between attempts to obtain claim datasets and research capacity. A greater research capacity, however, was not necessarily correlated with better accessibility to the claim data. Conclusions : The substantial unmet need for claim data among the healthcare policy research community calls for establishing proactive institutions which could systematically prepare and make available public datasets and provide call-in services to facilitate proper handling of data.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.117-123
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• 2018

Background: Prostatitis, one of the most common diseases of the prostate, is a complex disease with various clinical features. This study aims to analyze the utilization and prescribing patterns of antibiotics in Korean patients with prostatitis between 2008 and 2015. Methods: We used the National Health Insurance Database complied from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA). The outcomes included the number of claims, number of patients, medical cost, and length of stay for each year. In addition, the prescribing patterns of antibiotics, including fluoroquinolone, and low-dose use of ciprofloxacin and levofloxacin were investigated. Results: The total number of patients and medical cost increased by 9.5% and 51.7% from 2008 to 2015, respectively. Most prostatitis patients were classified as chronic prostatitis patients. The prescribing proportion of antibiotics for chronic prostatitis outpatients decreased from 71.0% to 66.9% from 2008 to 2015, and fluoroquinolone accounted for more than half of the total antibiotics. Over 80% of prescription of levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin was identified to be for low-dose use. Conclusion: Most of the patients with prostatitis experienced pain relief and condition improvement after antibiotic treatment; however, chronic prostatitis and chronic pelvic pain syndrome recur easily. Therefore, active disease management and further studies are needed to enhance our understanding of effective treatment for prostatitis.

• Journal of Korean Medicine Rehabilitation
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.67-75
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• 2017

Objectives The study of the clinical effects of traditional east asian medicine (TEAM) using Taiwan national health insurance claim dataset (NHIRD) is useful in Korean Medicine research. We reviewed the clinical studies of TEAM using NHIRD as a whole through this study. Methods We comprehensively searched PUBMED and NHIRD DB for clinical effects of TEAM study using NHIRD from inception to 17, January 2017. As a result, 40 studies investigating the contribution of TEAM intervention to health benefit have been confirmed. We analyzed publication time, target disease, sample size, outcome measurement and main result of 40 searched studies. Results The number of TEAM studies using NHIRD grdually increasing. The topics of the team study using NHIRD covered a wide range of subjects including cardiovascular disease, tumor, gynecological disease, diabetes and kidney disease. The studies have shown large samples and reported significant effects on severe diseases. Conclusions The results of this study suggest that the study of Korean Medicine using Big data will be useful for decision making related to health care in Korea. However, considering the limited domestic Korean health insurance data, it will be necessary to activate the big data research of Korean Medicine through the establishment of a separate cohort in Korea.

• Korean Journal of Clinical Pharmacy
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.255-264
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• 2014

Objective: The aims of this study are to investigate the total volume of prescribed medicines against Alzheimer's disease (AD) and the trends of usage by analyzing the claims-data from the Korea National Health Insurance Service. Method: The demographic and claims-data were included the major AD treating medicines such as donepezil, galantamine, rivastigmine and memantine, and analyzed during the period of 2010~2012. The assessing criteria were gender, age, habitation, types of medical institution, code of ingredients, outcomes of treatment, volume and amount of claims, and the numbers of patients with dementias. After trimming the data, it were analyzed by the market size, demographic traits, characteristics of medical service, characteristics of each anti-AD medicine, etc. Results: Among the chosen 4 medicines, donepezil had the top prescription volumes. Most prevalent prescribing preparations of donepezil were conventional types. However, among the non-conventional types, oro-dispersible formulation is the fast increasing one in both volume and growth rate. This specialized preparations to improve both toleration and adherence, tend to being prescribed generally at the tertiary medical institutions. While the younger patients with mild-to-moderate AD mostly treated by expensive medicines in resident at the tertiary hospitals, the rest older patients with severe AD have been treated non-expensive one at long-term care facilities. Conclusion: AD is a chronic illness therefore, long-term use of therapeutic medications are highly important. If an anti-AD treatment was applied steadily in the earlier stages, it would be achieved not only improving the quality of life of patient but also reducing the expenses in the medical and nursing cares. As the socioeconomical impacts of AD is expanding, healthcare professionals need to aware the importance of pharmacotherapy and to improve sociopolitical fundamentals.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Information and Commucation Sciences Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.1051-1054
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• 2006

Lots of information such as prescription transmitted to the drug store by the result of separation of medical activity from medicine one, EDI for billing medical charge to Health Care Public Cooperation and the returned opinion letter sent to doctor etc is scattered in the Web document made from XML. Especially information containing medical treatment charge is one of the materials that are revised frequently. It is the current situation that document is transmitted or form is made for distribution whenever this kinds of revision is occurred. In this thesis, DTD design and implementation for the information system regarding the rate of medical charge is studied based on XML which is used to calculate charges for the several activities including consulting and prescribing. Patient or patron as well as doctor, pharmacist and nurse are all interested in the information regarding the rate of medical charge. It aims everybody to easily obtain information about the rate of medical charge by querying it anytime, anywhere.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.1-12
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• 2019

Objectives : Korean national health insurance data is a useful real-world data representing whole medical bills submitted to Health Insurance Review Agency. This study aims to understand recent benefit trend of insurance herbal preparations for treating bronchiectasis(disease code J47) utilizing insurance data. Methods : We reviewed national health insurance claims data from 2013 to 2017 which have main diagnosis or sub diagnosis code of J47 and with the record of prescribing insurance herbal medication. Frequency analysis was performed to analyze the most frequently prescribed prescription. Results & Conclusions : Both the number of claims statement(770 to 1,746cases) and patients(266 to 484) of insurance herbal preparations increased considerably from 2013 to 2017. Top 10 preparations based on the number of claims statement were 'Samso-eum', 'Yeonkyopaedok-san', 'Socheongryong-tang', 'Bojungikgi-tang', 'Hyangsapyungwi-san', 'Yijin-tang', 'Saengmaek-san', 'Jaeumganghwa-tang', 'Ojeok-san' and 'Gungha-tang'. Top 10 preparations based on the number of patients were 'Samso-eum', 'Socheongryong-Tang', 'Saengmaek-san', 'Yeonkyopaedok-san', 'Haengso-tang', 'Hyangsapyungwi-san', Yijin-tang', 'Jaeumganghwa-tang', 'Bojungikgi-tang' and 'Hyeonggaeyeongyo-tang' in respectiv order. Claims of top 10 frequent preparations occupied more than 60% of total claims. We hope this finding to be utilized as basic data for future research of evidence-based bronchiectasis treatment utilizing Korean traditional medicine.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.197-206
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• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study was to propose a method for developing a measure of hospital-wide all-cause risk-standardized readmissions using administrative claims data in Korea and to discuss further considerations in the refinement and implementation of the readmission measure. Methods: By adapting the methodology of the United States Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services for creating a 30-day readmission measure, we developed a 6-step approach for generating a comparable measure using Korean datasets. Using the 2010 Korean National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data as the development dataset, hierarchical regression models were fitted to calculate a hospital-wide all-cause risk-standardized readmission measure. Six regression models were fitted to calculate the readmission rates of six clinical condition groups, respectively and a single, weighted, overall readmission rate was calculated from the readmission rates of these subgroups. Lastly, the case mix differences among hospitals were risk-adjusted using patient-level comorbidity variables. The model was validated using the 2009 NHI claims data as the validation dataset. Results: The unadjusted, hospital-wide all-cause readmission rate was 13.37%, and the adjusted risk-standardized rate was 10.90%, varying by hospital type. The highest risk-standardized readmission rate was in hospitals (11.43%), followed by general hospitals (9.40%) and tertiary hospitals (7.04%). Conclusion: The newly developed, hospital-wide all-cause readmission measure can be used in quality and performance evaluations of hospitals in Korea. Needed are further methodological refinements of the readmission measures and also strategies to implement the measure as a hospital performance indicator.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.277-287
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• 2019

Background: Diabetes is known as one of the most important ambulatory care sensitive conditions. This study purposed to assess the status of continuity of care (COC) and diabetes-related avoidable hospitalizations (DRAHs) of a group of middle- and old-aged patients and to observe the relationship of the two elements by the two age groups. Methods: This study utilized the National Health Insurance Service's National Sample Cohort data and the subjects are diabetes patients of 45 and over, classified into two groups of 'middle-aged'(45-64 years) and 'old-aged'(${\geq}65years$) patients. The dependent variable was DRAHs, which was defined in accordance with the definition of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development "Health Care Quality Indicators" project. COC, as an independent variable, is measured by the COC index in this study. Two-part model (multi-variate and multi-level analyses) was utilized. Results: Factors associated with the status and the number of DRAHs differed by each age group. Meanwhile, the two-part model showed that higher COC was associated with a lower risk of preventable hospitalizations in both middle- and old-aged groups. Conclusion: Study findings can provide health policy insights and implications in order to strengthen the primary care system for further improvement of diabetes management, especially for middle- and old-aged groups.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.451-461
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• 2021

Background: Readmissions related to lack of quality care harm both patients and health insurance finances. If the factors affecting readmission are identified, the readmission can be managed by controlling those factors. This paper aims to identify factors that affect readmissions of convalescent rehabilitation patients. Methods: Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service claims data were used to identify readmissions of convalescent patients who were admitted in hospitals and long-term care hospitals nationwide in 2018. Based on prior research, the socio-demographics, clinical, medical institution, and staffing levels characteristics were included in the research model as independent variables. Readmissions for convalescent rehabilitation treatment within 30 days after discharge were analyzed using logistic regression and generalization estimation equation. Results: The average readmission rate of the study subjects was 24.4%, and the risk of readmission decreases as age, length of stay, and the number of patients per physical therapist increase. In the patient group, the risk of readmission is lower in the spinal cord injury group and the musculoskeletal system group than in the brain injury group. The risk of readmission increases as the severity of patients and the number of patients per rehabilitation medicine specialist increases. Besides, the readmission risk is higher in men than women and long-term care hospitals than hospitals. Conclusion: "Reducing the readmission rate" is consistent with the ultimate goal of the convalescent rehabilitation system. Thus, it is necessary to prepare a mechanism for policy management of readmission.