Ruling Party and Government: "Only Follow-up Visits Allowed for Telemedicine" vs Industry: "Distinction Between Initial and Follow-up Visits is Meaningless"

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Controversy is emerging over the effectiveness of limiting telemedicine to follow-up visits. The telemedicine platform industry is opposing the government and political circles' discussion of restricting telemedicine to follow-up visits, arguing that "it is practically impossible to distinguish between initial and follow-up visits in telemedicine."

Among the five medical law amendment bills to be submitted to the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee's bill subcommittee on the 25th, four bills include provisions allowing telemedicine only for follow-up visits. According to data on telemedicine status for seven medical specialties?internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, dermatology, and urology?collected by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) from February 2020 to September 2022, obtained by Democratic Party lawmaker Shin Hyun-young who proposed the related bills, the proportion of initial visits was 9% (891,529 out of 9,898,995 cases), while the remaining 91% (9,007,466 cases) were follow-up visits. Dermatology had the highest initial visit rate at 25.9%, whereas psychiatry had the lowest at 3.3%. Lawmaker Shin interpreted that telemedicine platforms could be utilized by allowing only follow-up visits according to the characteristics of each medical specialty.

The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop), composed of telemedicine providers, immediately rebutted this. According to Wonsanhyeop, 99% of telemedicine platform users are initial patients. They claimed, "Lawmaker Shin's side excluded 8.43 million cases (46%) out of a total of 18.32 million telemedicine cases conducted based on health insurance statements where it was impossible to distinguish between initial and follow-up visits." The Ministry of Health and Welfare's statistics, which announced an 18.5% initial visit rate for telemedicine, were also derived using this criterion. A Wonsanhyeop official stated, "Even long after telemedicine sessions, nearly half of the cases cannot be distinguished as initial or follow-up visits," adding, "This means that in the telemedicine field, distinguishing whether a patient is an initial or follow-up visit is meaningless."

The telemedicine platform industry says that if telemedicine is limited to follow-up visits, many companies in the industry will inevitably collapse. Follow-up visits are limited to cases where a patient visits the same medical staff within 30 days for the same illness after treatment has ended. Mild illnesses such as colds, pharyngitis, and dermatitis, which account for most of the platform industry's revenue, would effectively require patients to visit hospitals in person. The platform industry also questioned, "If a patient who thought they had a cold applies for a follow-up visit but is diagnosed with a different disease code such as pharyngitis or flu, does that mean both the medical staff and patient committed an illegal act?" Wonsanhyeop said, "It is important to make decisions based on the judgment of medical staff on site rather than distinguishing between initial and follow-up visits," and added, "We believe that the bill proposed by People Power Party lawmaker Kim Sung-won, which specifies diseases for which telemedicine should never be allowed, is the most aligned with the medical field."

Medical professionals who have experienced telemedicine through platforms also expressed regret, saying, "It would be unfortunate if only follow-up visits were allowed." Dr. A, who runs an otolaryngology clinic in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, said, "I was able to meet patients nationwide, including in Seoul and Busan, through telemedicine platforms, but now that will be impossible." Pharmacists stated in a petition on the 21st, "Even with limited capital, telemedicine was a platform where young and talented new pharmacists could fully demonstrate their capabilities."

The Korea Startup Forum (Kospo), a higher-level organization of Wonsanhyeop, launched a nationwide signature campaign to protect telemedicine on the 14th and collected over 100,000 signatures in 10 days. This was delivered to the Presidential Office on the 21st. Park Jae-wook, chairman of Kospo, said, "This is evidence that many citizens see telemedicine as essential, allowing access anytime and anywhere."

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