• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.41-50
• /
• 1985

To find out the differences in medical practice according to the environment of patient care and managerial situation of the medical care institutions, normal spontaneous vaginal delivery and acute appendicitis were selected, which is suitable for comparison because of their high comparability. A total of 473 cases of normal spontaneous vaginal delivery and 408 cases of acute appendicitis was sampled from the claims to Korea Medical Insurance Cooperations during January to June 1984. Complicated cases were excluded from population and sampling was restricted from 40 to 60 percentile for total charges by the type of medical care facility in order to rule out the influence originating from case mix. Important items representing type and quantity of medical care service were compared by type of facility. Major findings are as follows : 1. University hospital shows the highest in charges per case and decrease in order of general hospital, and clinic. 2. In case of normal spontaneous vaginal delivery, average length of stay shows statistically significant difference by type of facility. 3. Charge amount for each service item affected by practice pattern shows statistically significant difference mostly by type of facility. It is suggested that medical practice pattern is different by type of facility for medical services. 4. Difference in total medical expenditure by type of facility is affected more with charges for materials, consumables and drugs than with fee for service activity. 5. In administering drugs to patients, hospital and clinic show higher injection rate than university and general hospital. 6. Clinical Laboratory tests were common in order of uninalysis, hemoglobin, hematocrit, white blood cell count, urine microscopic examination in cases of normal spontaneous vaginal delivery; white blood cell count, urinalysis, hemoglobin, hematocrit, urine microscopic examination, white blood cell differential count, in cases of acute appendicitis. 7. The result for Laboratory test and Radiologic study shows extreme difference by type of facility. Test rate is lowest in clinic and increase hospital, general hospital, and university hospital in order, both in type and frequency.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.23 no.1
• /
• pp.51-64
• /
• 2018

Purposes : In February 2014, the government said that the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) will enforce plan for reducing the financial burden from two major non-covered services including physician surcharges and private room charges, the main causes to increase uninsured, by 2017. The purpose of this study is to analyze the policy effect that performed so far by comparing out-of-pocket payment rates of policy process Methodology: This study analyzed admission medical expenses that occurred from January 2013 to March 2016 at a upper grade general hospitals in Daejeon. Number of study subjects were 134,924 and the data were analyzed with SPSS 22.0 program by using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, ANOVA. The effect of two major non-payment improvement plan on out-of-pocket rates was ascertained via generalized estimating equation. Findings: Out-of-pocket payment rates was statistically significantly declined 2.7 percent than enforcement ago. Also, out-of-pocket payment, physician surcharge, the proportion of out-of-pocket payment of hospital room charge to out-of-pocket payment was statistically significantly declined. However, a further analysis of the cause of the decline in total medical costs is needed. Practical Implications: Physician surcharges and private room charges improvement policy had a positive effect on the decline of out-of-pocket payment rate. The policy of physician surcharges was very effective after the first policy enforcement but it was less effective to medical aids and near poor that was a more greater coverage than national health insurance. Since the policy has not been finalized, we have to continue a research for the successful implementation of the policy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.26 no.2 s.42
• /
• pp.293-309
• /
• 1993

With expanded and extended coverage of the national medical insurance and fast growing health care expenditures, appropriateness of health service utilization and quality of care are concerns of both health care providers and insurers as well as patients. An accurate patient classification system is a basic tool for effective health care policies and efficient health services management. A classification system applicable to Korean medical information-Korean Diagnosis Related Groups (K-DRGs)-was developed based on the U.S. Refined DRGs, and the performance of the developed system was assessed in this study. In the process of the development, first the Korean coding systems for diagnoses and procedures were converted to the systems used in the definition of the U.S. Refined DRGs using the mapping tables formulated by physician panels. Then physician panels reviewed the group definition, and identified medical practice patterns different in two countries. The definition was modified for the differences in K-DRGs. The process resulted in 1,199 groups in the system. Several groups in Refined DRGs could not be differentiated in K-DRGs due to insufficient medical information, and several groups could not be defined due to procedures which were not practiced in Korea. However, the classification structure of Refined DRGs was retained in K-DRGs. The developed system was evaluated fur its performance in explaining variations in resource use as measured by charges and length of stay(LOS), for both all and non-extreme discharges. The data base used in this evaluation included 373,322 discharges which was a random sample of discharges reviewed and payed by the medical insurance during the five-month period from September 1990. The proportion of variance in resource use which was reduced by classifying patients into K-DRGs-r-square-was comparable to the performance of the U.S. Refined DRGs: .39 for charges and .25 for LOS for all discharges, and .53 for charges and .31 for LOS for non-extreme discharges. Another measure analyzed to assess the performance was the coefficient of variation of charges within individual K-DRGs. A total of 966 K-DRGs (87.7%) showed a coefficient below 100%, and the highest coefficient among K-DRGs with more than 30 discharges was 159%.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
• /
• v.11 no.3
• /
• pp.65-78
• /
• 2017

Objectives : Obesity is a worldwide health concern due to an increasing obese population. This study proposed to analyze the differences in medical costs and care utilization between obese and normal group using propensity score matching. Methods : Data were collected from the sample cohort database by the Korea National Health Insurance Corporation. Propensity score matching(PSM) was applied to control selection bias, and factors affecting obesity were used as covariates in PSM. Results : The results showed higher medical costs and care utilization in the obese group than the normal group. According to gender and medical type, there were differences in the relationships between obesity and medical charges and utilization. In particular, the differences in the female population were larger in both outpatients and inpatients than the male population. Conclusions : It is important to manage obesity, because obesity has a negative effect on national health insurance costs. These findings suggest directions for future research.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.34 no.1
• /
• pp.78-86
• /
• 2024

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the specialty hospital system by comparing the medical use of inpatients who had artificial joint replacement surgery in specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals. Methods: This study utilized 2021-2022 healthcare benefit claims data provided by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. The dependent variable is inpatient medical use which is measured in terms of charges per case and length of stay. The independent variable was whether the hospital was designated as a specialty hospital, and the control variables were patient-level variables (age, gender, insurer type, surgery type, and Charlson comorbidity index) and medical institution-level variables (establishment type, classification, location, number of orthopedic surgeons, and number of nurses). Results: The results of the multiple regression analysis between charges per case and whether a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital showed a statistically significant negative relationship between charges per case and whether a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital. This suggests a significant low in charges per case when a hospital is designated as a specialty hospital compared to a non-specialty hospital, indicating that there is a difference in medical use outcomes between specialty hospitals and non-specialty hospitals inpatients. Conclusion: The practical implications of this study are as follows. First, the criteria for designating specialty hospitals should be alleviated. In our study, the results show that specialty hospitals have significantly lower per-case costs than non-specialty hospitals. Despite the cost-effectiveness of specialty hospitals, the high barriers to be designated for specialty hospitals have gathered the specialty hospitals in metropolitan and major cities. To address the regional imbalance of specialty hospitals, it is believed that ease the criteria for designating specialty hospitals in non-metropolitan areas, such as introducing "semi-specialty hospitals (tentative name)," will lead to a reduction in health disparities between regions and reduce medical costs. Second, it is necessary to determine the appropriateness of the size of hospitals' medical staff. The study found that the number of orthopedic surgeons and nurses varied in charges per case. Therefore, it is believed that appropriately allocating hospital medical staff can maximize the cost-effectiveness of medical services and ultimately reduce medical costs.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.22 no.3
• /
• pp.197-209
• /
• 2022

Purpose: This study systematically evaluated the implications of advanced age on post-surgical outcomes following gastrectomy for gastric cancer using a national database. Materials and Methods: The 2011-2017 National Inpatient Sample was used to isolate patients who underwent gastrectomy for gastric cancer. From this, the population was stratified into those belonging to the younger age cohort (18-59 years), sexagenarians, septuagenarians, and octogenarians. The younger cohort and each advanced age category were compared in terms of the following endpoints: mortality following surgery, length of hospital stay, charges, and surgical complications. Results: This study included a total of 5,213 patients: 1,366 sexagenarians, 1,490 septuagenarians, 743 octogenarians, and 1,614 under 60 years of age. Between the younger cohort and sexagenarians, there was no difference in mortality (2.27 vs. 1.67%; P=0.30; odds ratio [OR], 1.36; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.81-2.30), length of stay (11.0 vs. 11.1 days; P=0.86), or charges ($123,557 vs. $124,425; P=0.79). Compared to the younger cohort, septuagenarians had higher rates of in-hospital mortality (4.30% vs. 1.67%; P<0.01; OR, 2.64; 95% CI, 1.67-4.16), length of stay (12.1 vs. 11.1 days; P<0.01), and charges ($139,200 vs. $124,425; P<0.01). In the multivariate analysis, septuagenarians had higher mortality (P=0.01; adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 2.01; 95% CI, 1.18-3.43). Similarly, compared to the younger cohort, octogenarians had a higher rate of mortality (7.67% vs. 1.67%; P<0.001; OR, 4.88; 95% CI, 3.06-7.79), length of stay (12.3 vs. 11.1 days; P<0.01), and charges ($131,330 vs. $124,425; P<0.01). In the multivariate analysis, octogenarians had higher mortality (P<0.001; aOR, 4.03; 95% CI, 2.28-7.11). Conclusions: Advanced age (>70 years) is an independent risk factor for postoperative death in patients with gastric cancer undergoing gastrectomy.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.23 no.4 s.32
• /
• pp.451-464
• /
• 1990

The variation in resource utilization for hospitalized patients who had a group of similar diseases -- a Korean Diagnosis Related Group (KDRG) -- among the same type of hospitals was studied to assess the utillization variation due to the practice pattern of hospitals. Information about inpatients who were beneficiaries of the medical insurance for teachers and government officials discharged from 20 large university teaching hospitals in Seoul during 1986 and information about the hospitals were analyzed to achieve the study objective. A total of 20,223 non-outlier patients in 100 most frequent KDRGs were included in the analysis. Case charges after the review and length of stay (LOS) were used as measures of resource utilization during a hospitalization. A substantial variation among hospitals was found in most KDRGs : o the ratio of the maximum and the minimum among the mean case charges of hospitals was greater than 2 in 83 KDRGs ; o the difference between the maximum and the minimum among the mean case charges of hospitals was greater than 100,000 Won in 94 KDRGs : o the ratio of the maximum and the minimum among the mom LOS of hospitals was greater than 2 in 82 KDRGs ; o the difference between the maximum and the minimum among the mean LOS of hospitals was greater than 3 days in 94 KDRGs. The practice pattern of hospitals explained more than 20% of charge variation in 49 KDRGs and more than 20% of LOS variation in 43 KDRGs. The study results indicated need for a new health policy initiative for cost containment and quality assurance.

• Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health
• /
• v.23 no.2 s.30
• /
• pp.216-223
• /
• 1990

To identify the factors influencing the charges per case of acute appendicitis and normal spontaneous vaginal delivery (NSVD), the personal data-base files and hospital-characteristics-reporting data files of Korea Medical Insurance Corporation were analyzed. One hundred and twenty-nine institutions were selected. The results of this study were as follows 1. The differences of charges per case with respect to hospital ownership, location, and equipment levels were statistically significant. 2. The results of multiple regression analysis revealed that bed capacity was the most significant variable in both diseases. 3. Ownership was significant variable in acute appendicitis. In NSVD, ownership and hospital equipment level were statistically significant. In conclusion, bed capacity was statistically the most significant variable in the analysis of charages per case. And we thought that the results of this study would influence the policy of the hospital bed supply.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.69-118
• /
• 2007

In providing general medical treatments, the medical service contract between the patient and the doctor is the mutually responsible onerous contract. However, the nature of the mutually assumed contract standings of the patient and the doctor has been changing since the implementation of the national health insurance program. For instance, besides the cases of beyond excessive medical charges and medical negligence, if the doctor charged for his/her medical treatments violating the post-treatment/nursing cover criteria, the overpaid medical charge, regardless of being collected with the patient's consent, has to be refunded back to the patient. Medically needed aspects, treatment results, and unfair benefits favoring the patient are not at all taken into consideration in the health insurance scheme. This makes it easier for patients to get refunds for their share of the medical payments by involving the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service or the National Health Insurance Corporation, without engaging in civil law suits (for reimbursement claim) against doctors. In other words, the doctor's responsibility to provide medical treatments and the patient's responsibility to pay for the medical treatment provided within the contractual realm are being demolished by the administrational arbitration of the National Health Insurance system. The basic rights of medical service providers, and the patient's right to choose are as important constitutional rights, as the National Health Insurance program, which is essential in the social welfare system. Furthermore, the development of the medical fields should not be prevented by the National Health Insurance system. If the medical treatment services can be divided into necessary treatments, general treatments, and high quality treatments, the National Health Insurance is supposed to guarantee the necessary and general treatments to provide medical treatments equally to all the insured with limited financial resources. However, for the high quality treatments, it is recommended that they should not be interfered by the National Health Insurance system, and that they should be left to the private contract between the patient and the doctor.

• Health Policy and Management
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.31-39
• /
• 2015

Background: The purpose of this study is comparison of the results between regression and multi-level analysis to find out factors influencing outcome indicators (in-hospital death, length of stay, and medical charges) of stroke patients. Methods: By using patient sample data of Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, patients admitted with stroke were selected as survey target and 15,864 patients and 762 hospitals were surveyed. Results: For the results of existing regression analysis and multi-level analysis, models were assessed through model suitability index value and as a result, the value of results of multi-level analysis decreased compared to the results of regression, showing it is a better model. Conclusion: Factors influencing in-hospital death of stroke patients were analyzed and as a result, intra-class correlation (ICC) was 13.6%. In factors influencing length of stay, ICC was 11.4%, and medical charges, ICC was 17.7%. It was found that factors influencing the outcome indicators of stroke patients may vary in every hospital. This study could carry out more accurate analysis than existing research findings through analysis of reflecting structure at patient level and hospital level factors and analysis on random effect.