"30,000 Won Just for Issuing Medical Certificates" DB Insurance Reports Overcharging Hospitals to Health Centers

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] #. Office worker Choi (45 years old) visited an orthopedic clinic due to shoulder pain. After receiving muscle relaxant injections and physical therapy, he paid 98,000 KRW for the treatment and requested the issuance of a medical certificate to submit to the insurance company. However, the hospital demanded 30,000 KRW for the certificate issuance fee. Although Mr. Choi protested that the fee was too expensive, he ultimately paid 30,000 KRW and received the certificate.

DB Insurance announced on the 16th that it reported 172 hospitals to public health centers for charging fees exceeding the maximum limits set by the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s “Standards for Fees of Medical Certificates and Related Documents Issued by Medical Institutions,” as in the above case.

Among them, 87 hospitals adjusted their fees to be within the maximum limits specified in the fee notice through administrative guidance from the public health centers, the company explained.

Patients with insurance apply for insurance claims by obtaining medical certificates and related documents, but due to some medical institutions charging exorbitant fees up to 10 to 200 times the maximum limit, the burden is ultimately passed on to the patients.

According to the maximum fee standards for medical certificates announced in September 2017, the fee for copies of medical records is capped at 1,000 KRW per page for 1 to 5 pages, and 100 KRW per page for 6 or more pages. The maximum fee for medical imaging records (CD) is set at 10,000 KRW.

However, the company claimed that there have been cases where fees of up to 20,000 KRW per page for medical record copies and up to 100,000 KRW for medical imaging records (CD) were charged.

Currently, although the Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced the “Standards for Fees of Medical Certificates and Related Documents Issued by Medical Institutions,” it can only recommend corrective actions to medical institutions violating these standards, but cannot impose legal restrictions.

Therefore, DB Insurance emphasized that to protect consumers’ rights who necessarily require medical certificates, it is urgent to enact related laws and improve systems so that corrective orders can be issued when medical institutions charge fees exceeding the maximum limits in violation of the Medical Service Act.

A DB Insurance official stated, “To protect consumers’ rights and ensure reasonable operation of medical certificate fees, we plan to continue activities to identify medical institutions that do not comply with the announced standards, report them to public health centers, and promote improvements.”

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