[2021 National Audit] Rep. Kim Won-i Criticizes 'Doctor's Note Prescription' for Certain Health Supplements

Kim "Need to Eradicate Unfair Customer Solicitation and Kickback Rebates"

Kim Won-i, Member of the National Assembly.

[Mokpo=Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Jeong Seunghyun] Kim Won-i, a member of the National Assembly from the Democratic Party of Korea (Health and Welfare Committee, Mokpo City), pointed out that cases where medical staff issue so-called ‘jjokji prescriptions’ for certain nutritional supplements with the purpose of sales profit must be eradicated.

A jjokji prescription refers to a separate note written on paper that makes it seem mandatory for patients to purchase health functional foods, which can be bought at the individual’s discretion without a doctor’s prescription.

Although suspicions of rebates given to prescribing medical staff have been continuously raised, it is pointed out that under the current Medical Service Act, punishment for rebates is impossible, creating a ‘blind spot’ in enforcement.

According to a survey conducted jointly by Assemblyman Kim and the Korean Pharmaceutical Association targeting 2,079 pharmacists nationwide from September 14 to 16, 27.2% (559 respondents) of pharmacists reported having received a jjokji prescription from medical institutions within the past five years.

Among respondents, 25.6% (527 respondents) said they had not personally experienced it but had heard of it, meaning more than half of the surveyed pharmacists either directly experienced or heard of jjokji prescriptions. This shows that jjokji prescriptions are widely practiced as an industry custom.

The survey results targeting 559 pharmacists who had experienced jjokji prescriptions are as follows. Regarding the issuance frequency, monthly issuance of one or more was the highest at 31.7% (177 respondents), followed by weekly issuance of one or more at 22% (123 respondents).

Daily issuance of one or more was also reported by 14.1% (79 respondents), revealing that a significant number of pharmacists encounter jjokji prescriptions routinely.

When asked about the types of products prescribed via jjokji prescriptions, health functional foods (428 respondents) were the most frequently mentioned, followed by over-the-counter drugs (282 respondents), health foods (81 respondents), quasi-drugs (72 respondents), and cosmetics (71 respondents).

Participants pointed out that recently, lutein and vitamin types of health functional foods are often prescribed via jjokji prescriptions.

Regarding the medical departments issuing jjokji prescriptions, ophthalmology (236 respondents) was the most frequently cited, followed by internal medicine (204 respondents), dermatology and urology (125 respondents), family medicine (122 respondents), obstetrics and gynecology (82 respondents), pediatrics (61 respondents), and otolaryngology (52 respondents).

When selecting the type of medical institution issuing jjokji prescriptions, clinic-level institutions (365 respondents) were the most common, followed by tertiary general hospitals (190 respondents) and hospital-level institutions (166 respondents). This indicates that such practices are frequent in relatively small-scale clinics but also significantly present in university hospital-level institutions.

In fact, in March of this year, the Fair Trade Commission fined a food company for violating the Fair Trade Act by inducing purchases of its products after having obstetrics and gynecology departments issue jjokji prescriptions. The reason was restricting consumer choice through ‘customer inducement by deception.’ The company was found to have given about half of its sales profits as kickbacks to medical staff, but the medical staff were not punished.

Assemblyman Kim emphasized, “Nutritional supplements are products that consumers can freely choose without a doctor’s prescription, and there is a need for awareness and recognition of the problems with the jjokji prescription practice that continues as a custom.” He added, “We will promote legislation to punish medical staff who receive kickbacks in exchange for jjokji prescriptions of health functional foods as rebates under the Medical Service Act to eradicate this practice.”

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