Five Health and Medical Organizations Say Allowing First Telemedicine Visits Is a "Wrong Direction"

Ahead of the legislation for non-face-to-face medical consultations, healthcare organizations have rebutted the platform industry's demand for 'allowing initial consultations,' calling it a "wrong direction." They also presented evidence that most countries overseas that permit non-face-to-face consultations only allow follow-up visits.

On the 21st, five healthcare organizations?the Korean Medical Association, the Korean Hospital Association, the Korean Dental Association, the Korean Oriental Medical Association, and the Korean Pharmaceutical Association?issued a joint statement, pointing out that "there is no effort to seek progressive measures that allow the public to use non-face-to-face consultations more safely and effectively, and instead, there is a misguided judgment and will to generate profits with the inappropriate direction of non-face-to-face initial consultations."

Status of initial remote medical consultation approval by country, released by the Korea Medical Association Medical Policy Research Institute.

The organizations stated, "We have made it clear that non-face-to-face consultations cannot guarantee the same level of effectiveness and safety as traditional face-to-face consultations and therefore should be used as a supplementary method," emphasizing that "this is the minimum principle to protect the most important value in medical care?safe treatment?while sufficiently considering the benefits for our citizens in accessing medical services."

Regarding the allowance of initial non-face-to-face consultations in various countries, they added, "Like South Korea, some countries temporarily allowed initial consultations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but after the serious situation was resolved, they applied policies prohibiting initial consultations." They further noted, "Except for the U.S. 'Medicaid' program for some disabled and elderly individuals, no countries allow initial non-face-to-face consultations except for the UK and Canada, where medical accessibility is very poor."

These organizations also proposed to the government, the National Assembly, and the Telemedicine Industry Council to continue sufficient consultations to understand the effects and issues of non-face-to-face consultations and to make improvements to protect public health rights. They stated, "We will actively participate in and strive through social consultation processes to protect the public’s benefits and safety and uphold the core values of medical care in discussions regarding the allowance and measures of non-face-to-face consultations."

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