December Loss Compensation of 248.9 Billion KRW for COVID-19 Medical Institutions Payment

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[Asia Economy Reporter Byeon Seon-jin] The Central Accident Response Headquarters of the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 31st that the total compensation paid to medical institutions and others since the outbreak of COVID-19 amounts to 8.301 trillion KRW. This follows the payment of 248.9 billion KRW on the 30th, based on the review and resolution of the Loss Compensation Deliberation Committee (33rd session) held on the 27th.

In accordance with the Infectious Disease Control and Prevention Act, the government has formed a committee of up to 20 members, including co-chairs from the public and private sectors, related organizations, legal, loss adjustment, and infectious disease experts, to compensate for losses incurred by medical institutions due to COVID-19.

This provisional payment disbursed 172.3 billion KRW to 341 medical institutions, of which 172.5 billion KRW was paid to 333 treatment medical institutions such as infectious disease-dedicated hospitals, and 280 million KRW was paid and reclaimed from 8 screening clinic operating hospitals.

Additionally, the 34th provisional payment scheduled for January next year will be pre-paid at 72.4 billion KRW to 115 medical institutions that submitted prior applications as COVID-19 treatment institutions.

While the principle is to pay loss compensation after confirming the loss, provisional payments have been made monthly by estimating losses temporarily to ensure prompt compensation for infectious disease-dedicated hospitals and other COVID-19 patient treatment medical institutions. After the release of dedicated hospitals, a full settlement of all loss compensation is conducted.

Of the 8.301 trillion KRW paid since April 2020, provisional payments to treatment medical institutions amounted to 8.0649 trillion KRW to 600 medical institutions, and compensation for closure and business suspension losses amounted to 236.1 billion KRW to 75,572 institutions.

Loss compensation payments have increased annually: 939.9 billion KRW in 2020, 2.901 trillion KRW in 2021, and 4.4601 trillion KRW in 2022.

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