• Health Policy and Management
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.164-177
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• 2020

This study aims to compare the experience of selected countries in operating separate payment system for new healthcare technology and to find implications for price setting in Korea. We analyzed the related reports, papers, laws, regulations, and related agencies' online materials from five selected countries including the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, and France. Each country has its own additional payment system for new technologies: transitional pass-through payment and new technology ambulatory payment classification for outpatient care and new technology add-on payment for inpatient care (USA), an extra payment for materials with new functions or new treatment (C1, C2; Japan), an additional payment system for new special treatment materials (Taiwan), a short-term extra funding for new diagnosis and treatment (NUB; Germany), and list of additional payments for new medical devices (France). The technology should be proven safe and effective in order to get approval for an additional payment. The price is determined by considering the actual cost of providing the technology and the cost of existing similar technologies listed in the benefits package. The revision cycle of the additional payment is 1 to 4 years. The cost or usage is monitored during that period and then integrated into the existing fee schedule or removed from the list. We conclude that it is important to set the explicit criteria to select services eligible for additional payment, to collect and analyze data to assess eligibility and to set the payment, to monitor the usage or cost, and to make follow-up measures in price setting for new health technologies in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.43 no.2
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• pp.79-86
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• 2020

To make a satisfactory decision regarding project scheduling, a trade-off between the resource-related cost and project duration must be considered. A beneficial method for decision makers is to provide a number of alternative schedules of diverse project duration with minimum resource cost. In view of optimization, the alternative schedules are Pareto sets under multi-objective of project duration and resource cost. Assuming that resource cost is closely related to resource leveling, a heuristic algorithm for resource capacity reduction (HRCR) is developed in this study in order to generate the Pareto sets efficiently. The heuristic is based on the fact that resource leveling can be improved by systematically reducing the resource capacity. Once the reduced resource capacity is given, a schedule with minimum project duration can be obtained by solving a resource-constrained project scheduling problem. In HRCR, VNS (Variable Neighborhood Search) is implemented to solve the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. Extensive experiments to evaluate the HRCR performance are accomplished with standard benchmarking data sets, PSPLIB. Considering 5 resource leveling objective functions, it is shown that HRCR outperforms well-known multi-objective optimization algorithm, SPEA2 (Strength Pareto Evolutionary Algorithm-2), in generating dominant Pareto sets. The number of approximate Pareto optimal also can be extended by modifying weight parameter to reduce resource capacity in HRCR.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.5 no.5 s.21
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• pp.65-75
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• 2004

Labor management has been considered as an important task in construction industry. However, labor management has not yet been systematically performed because of the wide variety of factors of construction industry such as the field work, the complexity of the work process, the daily employment. Most of the present labor managements are performed to collect the information of the number of labors input during the work period, and to calculate labor cost. The information of activities performed by labors can be effectively used to analyze project status related to schedule, cost and productivity, but the present labor management systems are not based on the activities. The main objective of this research is to develop a labor information management system using IT tools in order to measure the number of labors input on the activities, and to convert the labor information into productivity data. It is anticipated that the effective use of the developed system would be able to effectively assist the scheduling and cost management of a project.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.29 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2019

The fee-for-service system is used as the main payment system for health care providers in Korea. It has been argued that it can't reflect differences in the medical practice costs across regions because the fee schedule is calculated based on the average cost. So, some researchers and providers have disputed that there is need for adopting geographic practice cost index (GPCI) used in the United States for the Medicare program for the elderly to the fee-for-service payment system. This study performed to identify whether the difference in the practice costs among regions exists or not and to examine the feasibility of applying GPCI to Korea payment system. For this purpose, we calculated modified-GPCI and examined considerations to introduce GPCI in Korea. First we identified available data to calculate GPCI. Second, we made applicable GPCI equations to Korea payment system and computed it based on four types of regions (metropolitan, urban, suburban, and rural). We also categorize the regions based on the availability of the medical resources and the capability of utilizing them. As a result, we found that there wasn't any significant difference in the GPCI by regional types in general, but the indices of rural areas (0.91-0.98) was relatively low compared to the indices of other regions (0.96-1.07). Considering the need to use GPCI floor, the pros and cons of using GPCI, and the concern of the regional imbalance of resources, the introduction of GPCI needs to be carefully considered.

• Korean Journal of Construction Engineering and Management
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.3-11
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• 2023

According to the post evaluation scheme in Korea of a public construction project which is more than 30 Billion KRW, project performance is evaluated by investigating outcomes and effects of the construction after the completion of the project. The current post evaluation results can be used for planning and estimating a construction project in the future. However, it is not easy to utilized for an on-going project because the system does not provide the phase-based performance of a project. Although project planning performance is important for project initiation, few attempt has been made to evaluate planning performance in Korea. The purpose of this study is to provide a conceptual performance evaluation of planning performance using preliminary feasibility study conducted by Korea Development Institute. This study developed a planning performance database using data extracted from preliminary feasibility study reports of the completed 354 road construction projects. This study analyzed the performance of the planning stage of road projects by developing absolute metrics such as standard construction cost and standard construction schedule based on a Lane-Km. Using the standard construction cost and schedule metrics, the planning performance was analyzed by project characteristics. The results of this study can be used for phase-based performance evaluation from planning phase to construction phase.

• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.25 no.8
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• pp.57-74
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• 2021

Purpose - This study aims to analyze the characteristics of network construction by Norwegian Air and AirAsia X, which are recognized as leading airlines in the long-haul LCC market. Based on this analysis, this study intends to provide implications for networking strategies for Korean LCCs that seek to enter the long-haul market when the aviation market stabilizes again upon the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology - To conduct the network analysis on long-haul low-cost airlines, the Official Airline Guide (OAG) Schedule Analyzer was used to extract long-haul data of Norwegian Air and AirAsia X. To analyze the trend of the long-haul route network, we obtained the data from 3 separate years between 2011 and 2019. The network was analyzed using UCINET 6.0 in order to examine the network structure of long-haul low-cost airlines and the growth trend of each stage. Findings - Analyzing the network of long-haul routes by visualizing the network structure of low-cost carriers showed the following results. In its early years, Norwegian Air's long-haul route network, centering on regional airports in Spain and Sweden, connected European regions, the Middle East, and Africa. As time passed, however, the network expanded and became steadily strong as the airline connected airports in other European countries to North America and Asia. In addition, in 2011, AirAsia X showed links to parts of Europe, such as London and Paris, the Middle East and India, and Australia and Northeast Asia, centering on the Kuala Lumpur Airport. Although the routes in Europe were suspended, the network continued to expand while concentrating on routes of less than approximately 7,000 km. It was found that instead of giving up on ultra-long-haul routes such as Europe, the network was further expanded in Northeast Asia, such as the routes in Korea and Japan centering on China. Originality/value - Until the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Norwegian Air actively expanded long-haul routes, resulting in the number of long-haul routes quintupling since 2011. The unfortunate circumstance, wherein the world aviation market was rendered stagnant due to the outbreak of COVID-19, hit Norwegian Air harder than any other low-cost carriers. However, in the case of AirAsia X, it was found that it did not suffer as much damage as Norwegian Air because it initially withdrew from unprofitable routes over 7,000 km and grew by gradually increasing profitable destinations over shorter distances. When the COVID-19 pandemic ends and the aviation market stabilizes, low-cost carriers around the world, including Korea, that enter the long-haul route market will need to employ strategies to analyze the marketability of potential routes and to launch the routes that yield the highest profits without being bound by distance. For stable growth, it is necessary to take a conservative stance; first, by reviewing the business feasibility of the operating a small number of highly profitable routes, and second, by gradually expanding these routes.

• Journal of the Korean Wood Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.7-17
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• 1991

The feasibility of treating three softwood(Japanese larch pitch pine, and Korean pine) thinned logs by double-diffusion treatment processes was investigated. Some posts were incised before immersion, and others were imersed in hot copper sulfate solution. Comparison among species indicated that. in general, pitch pine was most treatable and Japanese larch least treatable. For all three species, almost all treatment schedules gave consistently good penetration and high net retention, but very steep gradient of preservative distribution. As expected, the treatability was increased by the extension of immersion time, increased concentration of treating solution, incising. and heating of the first solution. Of the variables tested, it appears that heating of the first solution is the most important. From the data in this paper, it may be concluded that, if the first solution is not heated, the best schedule is #3. If the first solution is healed. it appears the best schedules are #10 or #11. Since heating of the first solution improves the treatability. schedules # 10 or :#11 are recommended if the cost of heating might be justified. The data presented in this paper indicate that double-diffusion treatment processes seem to offer a promise as a comparatively effective and easy-operating method of treating thinned logs for the small-scale production of treated stock.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.11 no.5
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• pp.2499-2522
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• 2017

Multi-hop networks are a low-setup-cost solution for enlarging an area of network coverage through multi-hop routing. Carrier sense multiple access with collision avoidance (CSMA/CA) is frequently used in multi-hop networks. Multi-hop networks face multiple problems, such as a rise in contention for the medium, and packet loss under heavy-load, saturated conditions, which consumes more bandwidth due to re-transmissions. The number of re-transmissions carried out in a multi-hop network plays a major role in the achievable quality of service (QoS). This paper presents a statistical, analytical model for the end-to-end delay of contention-based medium access control (MAC) strategies. These strategies schedule a packet before performing the back-off contention for both differentiated heterogeneous data and homogeneous data under saturation conditions. The analytical model is an application of Markov chain theory and queuing theory. The M/M/1 model is used to derive access queue waiting times, and an absorbing Markov chain is used to determine the expected number of re-transmissions in a multi-hop scenario. This is then used to calculate the expected end-to-end delay. The prediction by the proposed model is compared to the simulation results, and shows close correlation for the different test cases with different arrival rates.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.13-27
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• 2021

Purpose: We examined the relationship between operating income and volume of medical services provided at general hospitals in 2018 according to characteristics of general hospitals and measured as operating income(net income) and volume(adjusted inpatient days) covered or non-covered by National Health Insurance(NHI). Methodology: Finance data from income statement reports in 212 general hospitals and the national health insurance claim data of these hospitals were used. The characteristics of the general hospital were divided into structural, operational, financial, and patient aspects. Operating income and volume were divided into covered and non-covered by NHI. Findings: The results showed high volume hospitals tended to be more profitable than low volume hospitals, especially in non-covered services. Operating income was more likely to be sensitive to non-covered services volume than to covered services volume. Practical Implications: It is necessary to understand the volume of services in non-covered, in order to obtain reliable cost information to be used for the fee schedule. Researches on small size hospitals(<160 beds) are needed, with a large variation in the volume of services and a strong tendency to compensate for the loss in the covered part in non-covered part.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.39-49
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• 2018

In the satellite operation phase, a ground station should continuously monitor the status of the satellite and sends out a tasking order, and a satellite should transmit data acquired in the space to the Earth. Therefore, the communication between the satellites and the ground stations is essential. However, a satellite and a ground station located in a specific region on Earth can be connected for a limited time because the satellite is continuously orbiting the Earth, and the communication between satellites and ground stations is only possible on a one-to-one basis. That is, one satellite can not communicate with plural ground stations, and one ground station can communicate with plural satellites concurrently. For such reasons, the efficiency of the communication schedule directly affects the utilization of the satellites. Thus, in this research, considering aforementioned unique situations of spacial communication, the mixed integer programming (MIP) model for the optimal communication planning between multiple satellites and multiple ground stations (MS-MG) is proposed. Furthermore, some numerical experiments are performed to verify and validate the mathematical model. The practical example for them is constructed based on the information of existing satellites and ground stations. The communicable time slots between them were obtained by STK (System Tool Kit), which is a well known professional software for space flight simulation. In the MIP model for the MS-MG problems, the objective function is also considered the minimization of communication cost, and ILOG CPLEX software searches the optimal schedule. Furthermore, it is confirmed that this study can be applied to the location selection of the ground stations.