Representative Director of Gwangju Korean Medicine Hospital Sentenced to Prison for Obtaining Insurance Money through 'False Medical Treatment'

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The chief director of a Korean medicine hospital in the Gwangju area, who fraudulently obtained insurance money by issuing false hospitalization documents to patients, has been sentenced to imprisonment, which corresponds to license revocation.

According to the legal community on the 15th, the Gwangju District Court Criminal Division 8 (Presiding Judge Park Sang-soo) sentenced Kim Mo (59), the chief director indicted for violating the Medical Service Act and the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud, to one year in prison.

The same hospital’s coordinator A, who conspired with the director in the crime, was sentenced to eight months in prison with a two-year probation.

From June 2018 to March 2019, Kim falsely prepared medical records as if patients had been hospitalized and treated, delivering them to 40 patients, and based on this, fraudulently received insurance money worth 82.84 million KRW from insurance companies.

Using the same method, he also embezzled approximately 46 million KRW in medical care benefits from the National Health Insurance Service for 37 falsely hospitalized patients.

Additionally, he instructed coordinator A to pay commissions and refer patients, and A, having agreed, introduced hospitalized patients 35 times from January to April 2019, gaining an unfair profit of 1.2 million KRW.

The court stated, "As a Korean medicine doctor, he did not fulfill basic responsibilities and took the lead in preparing false medical records, causing damage to insurance companies," and judged, "Considering the method and duration of the crime, the nature of the offense is very serious."

It added, "He also has a history of two fines for fraud offenses," and explained the sentencing reason, "Considering these unfavorable circumstances, a prison sentence is inevitable."

Regarding A, the court said, "The crime is not minor as it involved profit-motivated referral activities," but also noted, "However, the degree of participation was passive, and the gains were not large. Favorable factors such as no prior criminal record were considered."

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