• Journal of Digestive Cancer Research
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.104-107
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• 2023

The Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea has implemented various social security programs to ensure a basic standard of living and raise overall quality of life for all citizens. The Korean social security system provides social insurance, public assistance, and social welfare services. To achieve adequate drug benefits, the Drug Management Department of Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) implement drug management duties including drug listing, upper price limit setting, scope of benefits, and post-factum management. When a manufacturer or an importer wants to apply for National Health Insurance (NHI) coverage of the drug that has obtained safety and efficacy approval, the pharmaceutical benefit assessment committee of HIRA evaluates the drug's clinical efficacy and cost-effectiveness to determine whether or not to include the drug into the benefit package. The benefit standards for a listed drug (ingredient) are set either for the whole permitted range or a part of range with conditions. To increase the coverage rate for new drugs, the listed drugs are regularly reviewed for their value. The status of listed drugs can be adjusted or eliminated from the benefit package if the clinical efficacy turns out to be insignificant. Therefore, through these pharmaceutical management procedures, high-quality drugs are provided at reasonable prices, which save healthcare expenditure by price determination and selective coverage in consideration of economic evaluation.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing Administration
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• v.11 no.4
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• pp.449-467
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• 2005

Purpose: This study aims to offer the fundamental data in order to cost the nursing service on the basis of the NIC and a close examination of the interventions that are contained in the health insurance cost list under the system of the current health insurance. Methods: The data is handled with the SPSS 10.0 program. The participants' general peculiarity is calculated in terms of the real number and the percentage, and the performing frequency of the nursing interventions is calculated in terms of the mean and the standard deviation. the correlation between the participants' general peculiarity and the performing frequency of the nursing interventions is analysed with t-test or one way ANOVA of SPSS. Results: In the performing frequency of the nursing interventions, the domain of "the physiological: basic" was the highest as 2.69${\pm}$1.21, the domain of "the behavioral" was the lowest as 2.11${\pm}$1.12. There were 50 core interventions in the medical unit, 48 in the surgical unit, 24 in the MICU and 33 in the SICU. The health insurance cost items contained commonly in the core interventions of each unit were 12, and the health insurance cost items except 12 items contained commonly in the core interventions of each unit were appeared 14 items in the medical unit, 6 in the surgical unit, 7 in the MICU and 2 in the SICU. The core interventions contained commonly in four units of the medical unit, the surgical unit, the MICU & the SICU are 18. And among these, the core interventions contained in the health insurance cost items are 10; pain management, hyperglycemia management, analgegic administration, medication administration: intravenous, oxygen therapy, pressure ulcer prevention, fluid management, fluide monitoring, intravenous(IV) insertion, intravenous(IV) therapy. As the result of the comparison & analysis between the core interventions of the NIC and the health insurance cost items, the core interventions contained in the health insurance cost list are 21(29 as the health insurance cost items). Conclusion: In the performing frequency of the nursing interventions, the domain of "the physiological: basic" is being performed most frequently, and in the performing frequency of the core interventions, the interventions of the domain of "the physiological: complex" is being performed most frequently. On the basis of these results, the writer hopes that the attempts to interlink the nursing interventions into the nursing cost by using of standard terms and the efforts to cost the nursing services would also be made in the future constantly.

• Journal of Society of Preventive Korean Medicine
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.109-119
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• 2019

Background : Germany is the first country in the world to introduce modern systems of public health insurance, and the country which most widely uses complementary alternative medicine(CAM) in Europe. In early 21^st century, a large evaluation studies were conducted to include acupuncture in health insurance payments, which were eventually decided. Objectives : This study is to investigate and analyze the process of public policy determination on insurance coverage for acupuncture in German health insurance system. Methods : We collected the data and information through the literature search and from the websites of German government departments and health insurance organizations. To obtain contextual information, German experts of health insurance and acupuncture clinical study were interviewed. Results : As use of acupuncture had been growing, German public health insurers wanted to evaluate the validity of acupuncture coverage and sponsored three evaluation projects for clinical effectiveness of acupuncture using randomized clinical trials, systematic reviews, and pragmatic trials from 2001 to 2005. For some pain condition, acupuncture was founded not to be effective than sham acupuncture, but more effective than standard care. The federal joint committee of health insurance decided to cover acupuncture for chronic pain of lumbar spine and chronic pain in at least one knee joint due to gonarthrosis. Conclusions : Considering the controversial subject matter in the process of acupuncture's health insurance coverage in Germany, expanding the benefits of Korean medicine in Korea needs to come up with ways to overcome the difficulties of placebo effect, standardization and lack of literature evidence.

• Journal of radiological science and technology
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.343-351
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• 2020

This study analyzed dose reduction and quality of images through dose reduction tools and shielding board to protect sensitive eye lens in radiation during orbit CT examinations for clinical data use. During CT scans of the phantom, surface dose (CT scanner dosimetry phantom, ion chamber-3 times) and quality of image (radiosurgery head phantom, visual assessment-2 times, HU standard deviation) were evaluated using X-care which is dose reduction tools and bismuth shielding board. The results of experiments of eight conditions showed a relatively reduced dose in all other conditions compared to when no conditions were set. In particular, the area corresponding to the ophthalmic part reduced the surface dose by up to 45.7 %. The visual evaluation of images by specialists and the quality evaluation of images analyzed by HU standard deviation were clinically closest to the use of X-care and shielding board (1 cm in height). Therefore, it is believed that the use of shielding board in a suitable location with dose reduction tools while investigating the optimal radiation dose will reduce the exposure dose of sensitive lens at radiation while maintaining the quality of the images with high diagnostic value.

• Health Policy and Management
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.283-290
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• 2014

Background: This study aimed to examine the relationship between home-visit nursing services and health care utilization under the public long-term care insurance program in Korea. Methods: We analyzed the long-term care need assessment database and the long-term care and the health insurance claim databases of National Health Insurance Service between July 2011 and June 2012. The sample includes a total of 20,065 home-visit nursing recommended-older beneficiaries who use home-visit nursing and/or home-visit care, based on a standard benefit model developed by the Health Insurance Policy Institute of National Health Insurance Service. The beneficiaries were categorized into home-visit nursing use and non-use groups, and the home-visit nursing use group was again divided into high-use and low-use groups home-visit nursing, based on their total annual home-visit nursing expenditure. Two-part models and negative-binomial regression models were used for the statistical analysis. Results: The home-visit nursing use was negatively associated with the number of outpatient visit and cost, while adjusting for all covariates. The home-visit nursing use was also negatively associated with the inpatient cost among the high home-visit nursing use group. Conclusion: The findings implies home-visit nursing use prevents health care utilization. Further studies and policy strategies that can promote and strengthen home-visit nursing services under the public long-term care insurance are necessary in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.869-877
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• 2018

This study analyzed the current status of MRI (frequency, amount of treatment) based on the history of application of the MRI health insurance benefit standard and health insurance claim data. MRI examinations began as a health insurance benefit in 2005. In 2005, the indications were restricted for some diseases, but coverage for benefits in 2010, 2013, 2016, and 2018 was expanded. In 2021, the Ministry of Health and Welfare decided to apply health insurance for all MRI examinations. From 2010 to 2017, the number of MRI examinations increased by 86.7% in 2017 compared to 2010, and the amount of treatment increased by 53.5%. According to general characteristics, the number of MRI examinations was higher in women than in men. By age, the number of examinations was the highest among ages 70-79. Outpatient examinations were more frequent than inpatient examinations, and the number of examinations in the tertiary hospitals was the highest among the types of hospitals. The number of brain MRI examinations was the highest in each exam site. In December 2013, the standard of MRI was expanded for heart disease and Crohn's disease, the number of cardiac MRI and abdominal MRI examinations increased in 2014 compared to 2013. However, the number of examinations is small and not associate with the disease, it would be difficult to say that it affected the increase in the total number of MRI examinations. To assess health insurance sustainability and policy effectiveness, monitoring will be necessary.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.121-132
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• 2019

Objectives: This study analyzed the prescription antibiotics characteristics of Acute respiratory infection outpatients. It provides a basis for establishing the correct evaluation project on appropriate prescribing indicators. Methods: The research data were collected from the National Health Insurance Corporation's 2014 sample cohort for Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Otorhinolaryngology, Family Medicine and General practitioner clinics classification of diseases codes J00-J06, J20-J22, J40 outpatients. Results: The antibiotic prescription rate on the evaluation project for appropriate prescribing indicators of Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service was 43.54%, whereas in this study it was about 10% higher because the analysis targeted the entire acute respiratory infection diagnosis. Conclusions: There is a need to identify the correct antibiotic prescription by expanding the current assessment standard. Such standard must include acute lower respiratory infections and minor diagnosis because current evaluation projects on appropriate prescribing indicators targets only the major diagnosis of acute upper respiratory infection.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.27 no.5
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• pp.667-679
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• 2014

National Health Insurance Service(NHIS) provide care-plans for beneficiaries in the long-term care insurance(LTCI) systems that help them use LTC services appropriately. The care-plan includes recommendations for the most adequate type of care (gold standard) for beneficiaries. This study develops a decision-support system to determine the appropriate type of care plan. To develop a model, we used a data set that well-trained assessors in the NHIS investigated as a gold standard for beneficiaries: nursing home care, home-visit care, home-visit bathing, home-visit nursing, or day and night care. The decision-support system was established through a decision-tree model, because it may be easy to explain the algorithm of a decision-support system to working groups and policy makers. Our results might be useful in evidence-based care planning in an LTCI system and contribute to the efficient use of LTC services.

• Journal of the Korean Dietetic Association
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.67-84
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• 2022

This study aimed to explore the status of food service outsourcing behavior of long-term care institutions (LTCIs) through a cross-sectional survey using a questionnaire administered between July 16th and August 7th, 2020. The survey respondents were either dietitians or facility managers, who worked at 731 nursing homes, 477 group homes, and 673 day-care centers. Approximately 25.9% of nursing homes, 11.7% of group homes, and 33.1% of day-care centers used a managed-services company to operate their food service units. The main reason for outsourcing food service by nursing homes was related to the staffing of dietitians and cooks, whereas group homes and day-care centers outsourced food services due to factors relating to meal costs and the cooking process. Almost all the LTCIs entered into private contracts for outsourced food services. Only a few food service contracts included the types of meals, nutrition standards such as protein and calories per meal, and the parameter or ratio of food cost. Of the respondents, 84.5% from nursing homes, 87.5% from group homes, and 87.1% from day-care centers agreed that the quality of outsourced food services of the LTCIs should be regulated. Meals are essential for maintaining the health and functional status of LTCI users. As more LTCIs outsource their food services, we suggest the following: (1) Increasing the minimum dietitian staffing standards for LTCIs as per the Welfare of Senior Citizens Act and requiring at least one dietitian for every nursing home, (2) Making it mandatory to use a standard food service contract template when drafting food service contract, and (3) Developing realistic standards for food service operations considering the size and operation type of the LTCIs.

• The Korean Journal of Applied Statistics
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• v.31 no.6
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• pp.693-706
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• 2018

It is very important to support the elderly with disability ageing in place. Assisting devices can help them to live independently in their community; however, they have to be used appropriately to meet care needs. This study develops an assisting device recommendation system for the beneficiaries of long-term care insurance that include algorithms to decide the most appropriate type of assisting device for beneficiaries. We used long-term care (LTC) insurance data for grade assessment including 8,084 beneficiaries from July 2015 to June 2016. In addition, we collected standard care plans for assisting devices, that power-assessors made, considering their performance and ability that could subsequently be matched with grade assessment data. We used a decision-tree model in data-mining to develop the model. Finally, we developed 15 algorithms for recommending assisting devices. The findings might be useful in evidence-based care planning for assisting devices and can contribute to enhancing independence and safety in LTC.