Supreme Court Acquits Doctor Who Issued Medical Certificates Separately Over Two Days for Cataract Surgery on Both Eyes

Supreme Court, Seocho-dong, Seoul / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The Supreme Court has confirmed the acquittal of ophthalmologists who wrote medical certificates stating that cataract surgeries on both eyes were performed over two days, when in fact the surgeries were done on both eyes in one day.

On the 10th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Sanghwan) announced that it upheld the acquittal verdict from the appellate court in the final trial of ophthalmologists A and B, who were charged with writing false medical certificates.

A, who operates an ophthalmology clinic in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and others were prosecuted for writing medical certificates indicating that patients who underwent cataract surgery on both eyes in one day had the surgeries split over two days, in a total of 35 instances from March 2015 to January of the following year.

The prosecution argued that since the National Health Insurance Service does not allow claims for medical expenses if cataract surgeries on both eyes are performed in one day, and only allows claims when one eye is operated on per day, the defendants mistakenly wrote false certificates reflecting this misunderstanding.

However, both the first and second trials acquitted them, judging that the evidence submitted by the prosecution was insufficient to prove intentional falsification of medical certificates.

In particular, the appellate court pointed out, "For the crime of writing false medical certificates to be established, the defendants must have a subjective awareness that the surgery dates on the certificates were false."

It added, "The number of cases where both eyes were operated on in one day was relatively small among all cataract surgeries at these hospitals," and "Since a considerable amount of time had passed since the surgery dates when the certificates were collectively processed, it seems unlikely that the defendants deliberately recalled each case daily and falsified the certificates."

The Supreme Court agreed with this judgment. The court stated, "The appellate court did not err in its legal interpretation regarding dolus eventualis in the crime of writing false medical certificates," and dismissed the prosecution's appeal.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.