Non-Face-to-Face Medical Industry "Complete Withdrawal of Government Pilot Project" vs. Medical and Pharmaceutical Sectors "Strengthening Regulations"

Pilot Project for Non-Face-to-Face Medical Treatment Party-Government Consultative Meeting
[Image Source=Yonhap News]

The government has announced that it will operate the temporary non-face-to-face medical consultation, which was scheduled to end next month, as a pilot project, but there is a growing gap in opinions between the industry and the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. The pilot project plan released by the government on the 17th mainly allows follow-up consultations with limited initial consultations and prohibits drug delivery. While the non-face-to-face platform industry says, "This will inevitably lead to the collapse of the industry," the medical and pharmaceutical sectors argue that "regulations on non-face-to-face medical consultations should be strengthened even further."

The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop) stated in a press release on the 19th, "The pilot project plan for non-face-to-face medical consultations announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare is an anti-non-face-to-face medical consultation project that does not consider the actual delivery system of non-face-to-face medical consultations at all, and it is a death sentence for non-face-to-face medical consultations," and urged "the withdrawal and full reconsideration of the pilot project plan."

According to the pilot project plan announced by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, patients with chronic diseases must have received at least one face-to-face consultation for the same disease at the same hospital within one year, and patients with other diseases must have received it within 30 days to be eligible for non-face-to-face consultations. Initial consultations are only allowed for patients with infectious diseases classified as levels 1 to 4, residents in remote mountainous areas, and elderly people with mobility difficulties.

Wonsanhyeop criticized, "It is a serious contradiction to require citizens who find it difficult to visit hospitals and want to use medical services non-face-to-face to first receive face-to-face consultations, which are difficult to access in the first place." They also pointed out, "Forcing even chronic patients who repeatedly receive the same medication to collect it face-to-face unconditionally undermines the essence of non-face-to-face medical consultations, which aim to improve medical accessibility."

Wonsanhyeop raised their voice, saying, "When confirmed cases surged due to the spread of the Omicron virus and the public medical delivery system was paralyzed, it was the non-face-to-face medical consultation industry that connected non-face-to-face consultations on behalf of the government and frontline public health centers and delivered free medication to home treatment patients," and "Which entrepreneurs would trust a government that intends to practically collapse the industrial ecosystem immediately after passing through the tunnel of the COVID-19 crisis and proceed with innovation and investment?"

On the other hand, on the same day, medical and pharmaceutical organizations issued a statement reiterating that non-face-to-face medical consultations should be used as a supplementary means to face-to-face consultations. The Korean Medical Association, Korean Dental Association, Korean Pharmaceutical Association, and others presented six principles: ▲prohibition of initial non-face-to-face consultations in pediatric and adolescent night and holiday care ▲setting specific criteria for initial non-face-to-face consultation subjects ▲prohibition of hospital-level non-face-to-face consultations ▲clarification of legal responsibility for non-face-to-face consultations ▲strengthening management and supervision of illegal acts on non-face-to-face consultation platforms ▲prevention of misuse and overuse of non-reimbursable pharmaceuticals.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare stated that this pilot project is not the final plan and that the final plan will be confirmed before implementation next month. They plan to continuously improve it through periodic evaluations of the pilot project.

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