NHIS Opens 'Primary Care Development Center'... "Pilot of Korean-style Primary Physician Model"

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) announced on the 17th that it has opened the 'Primary Care Development Center' at the NHIS Ilsan Hospital to demonstrate the Korean-style primary care physician model.

Opening Ceremony of the Primary Care Development Center. [Photo by National Health Insurance Service]

In response to the aging population and the increase in chronic disease patients, the NHIS developed a patient-centered primary care model last year based on a research project to meet the diversifying healthcare service demands. The core of the model is that providers, consisting of group practices (clinics with two or more doctors) and multidisciplinary teams (various experts such as doctors, nurses, and social workers), register patients who agree to participate as primary care physicians, offering services ranging from health management, home visits, remote management and counseling, to linking with community healthcare resources.

The Primary Care Development Center was established to apply this model in the field, verify its feasibility, and develop it into an acceptable model. It plans to classify patients according to their health status, verify the service content and delivery methods for each patient group, demonstrate efficient operation methods of multidisciplinary teams, remote patient management methods, and build community networks to provide patient linkage cooperation and medical education on the patient-centered model. Based on this, the center aims to develop operational manuals and appropriate payment methods to expand the community-based patient-centered primary care physician model to primary care institutions.

Lee Sang-il, Executive Director of NHIS Benefits, stated, "The Primary Care Development Center will be the cornerstone for introducing the 'Korean-style primary care physician,' which creates patient-centered primary care rather than disease-centered care." Kim Sung-woo, Director of Ilsan Hospital, said, "For continuous and comprehensive management of the public's health, establishing primary care is of utmost importance, and Ilsan Hospital, as an insurer hospital, will spare no effort in cooperation and support to coexist with primary care."

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