Law "Unfair to fully reclaim health screening fees from doctors who accidentally missed training"

Seoul Administrative Court, Seocho-gu, Seoul. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A court ruling has found it unfair to recover the full cost of medical examinations conducted by a doctor who did not properly complete the mandatory training.

On the 18th, according to the court, the Seoul Administrative Court, Administrative Division 14 (Chief Judge Lee Sanghoon) recently ruled in favor of the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed by the director of Hospital A against the National Health Insurance Corporation, seeking cancellation of an unjust enrichment recovery order.

In 2020, the Corporation discovered that Dr. B, affiliated with Hospital A, a designated examination institution, conducted health checkups without completing the required training. Although Dr. B had received training in 2015, the training curriculum changed in 2019 after Dr. B joined Hospital A, creating a new obligation to complete the updated training.

The Corporation notified the hospital that it would recover the entire amount of approximately 44 million KRW, deemed unjust enrichment, for the examinations conducted by Dr. B from November 2019 to July 2020.

The court ruled in favor of the hospital director, stating, "Recovering the full cost of health examinations conducted by Dr. B is clearly unreasonable according to social norms and constitutes an abuse of discretion, thus illegal." While acknowledging the necessity to recover unjust enrichment, the court judged that recovering the entire cost of the examinations performed by Dr. B was excessive.

The court explained, "The defendant has the obligation to review and verify whether the examining doctor has completed the training and notify the plaintiff accordingly. It appears the defendant overlooked that Dr. B's training certificate was outdated and invalid," adding, "Both the plaintiff's negligence and the defendant's poor management contributed to the violation."

Furthermore, the court stated, "It is understandable that the hospital staff or the plaintiff mistakenly believed Dr. B's training certificate was valid," and added, "The training for examining doctors can be completed through a four-hour online course."

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