Reducing Compensation for Severe COVID-19 Beds Loss... Maximum Compensation Multiplier Reduced from 10x to 7x

Payment of 253.7 Billion KRW in Loss Compensation for September

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] The government will lower the compensation standards for severe beds provided to COVID-19 treatment medical institutions, including infectious disease specialized hospitals.

The Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters announced on the 30th that on the 27th, the Loss Compensation Deliberation Committee reviewed and approved a plan to adjust the compensation multiplier for severe beds from the current maximum of 10 times to 7 times.

Currently, the government applies compensation multipliers of 10 times (days 1-5 of hospitalization), 8 times (days 6-10), and 6 times (days 11-20) based on the number of days used for beds designated as COVID-19 severe beds. Going forward, these multipliers will be reduced to 7 times, 5 times, and 3 times, respectively. For unused severe beds, the compensation multiplier will decrease from 5 times to 2 times.

Park Hyang, head of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' quarantine team, said, "Following the Omicron variant, factors such as adjustments to management standards, infectious disease grading, and the introduction of general medical system treatment have led to the need to adjust the compensation multipliers for severe beds." She added, "We expect this adjustment to accelerate the efficiency of beds and medical resources." The adjustment will take effect from October 1.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare will also begin settling loss compensation payments from next month for medical institutions that have been released from COVID-19 patient treatment and have not been re-designated after a certain period.

While the principle is to pay loss compensation after losses are confirmed, due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation, the government has been providing compensation in the form of provisional payments (estimated losses calculated before final confirmation). As the situation stabilizes and COVID-19 medical response transitions to the general medical system, the government will start calculating exact losses.

Meanwhile, the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters will pay 253.7 billion KRW in loss compensation for September to medical institutions that incurred losses while treating COVID-19 patients, as well as to closed or suspended institutions.

Since April 2020, the government has been compensating COVID-19 treatment medical institutions monthly with provisional loss payments, and since August 2020, it has also paid loss compensation to medical institutions, pharmacies, and general businesses that complied with closure, suspension, or disinfection orders issued by the government or local governments.

In this 30th provisional payment, a total of 246.7 billion KRW will be paid to 237 medical institutions, of which 245.3 billion KRW will be compensated to infectious disease specialized hospitals and other treatment medical institutions (218 locations), and 1.4 billion KRW to hospitals operating screening clinics (19 locations). Additionally, 7 billion KRW in loss compensation for the 9th round will be paid to 1,058 institutions including medical institutions (167 locations), pharmacies (53 locations), general businesses (727 locations), and social welfare facilities (111 locations).

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