"Even When Frail, Medical Care and Nursing at Home"... Government Aims to Institutionalize with Pilot Project Next Month

Long-term Care Hospital Image

The government announced on the 28th that it will officially launch the pilot project for integrated medical and care support for the elderly. The core objective is to establish a model that allows elderly people with mobility difficulties to receive medical, nursing, and care services at home without having to go to nursing hospitals or facilities. Initially, from July 1st until December 2025, the pilot will be applied to elderly people aged 75 and over in 12 cities and districts nationwide, including Seo-gu and Buk-gu in Gwangju, and Daedeok-gu and Yuseong-gu in Daejeon.

The goal is to achieve two objectives: meeting the preference of elderly people who want to stay at home rather than in facilities, and reducing government health insurance expenditure in an aging society. According to the 2020 Elderly Survey, 56.5% of elderly people wished to continue living in their current homes despite mobility difficulties. Health insurance nursing hospital benefit expenses increased by 31%, from 3.6 trillion won in 2016 to 4.7 trillion won in 2020, and long-term care insurance facility benefit expenditures rose by 63%, from 2.2 trillion won to 3.6 trillion won during the same period.

The pilot project will establish a system where elderly people can receive medical services at their residence without visiting medical institutions. Doctors working at primary medical institutions will visit the target households directly. To this end, medical staff will receive fees through the ‘Primary Care Home Visit Fee Pilot Project,’ which sets fees for home visits. The Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to link this with a pilot project where a dedicated primary care physician, nurse, and social worker team visits the homes of elderly people with mobility difficulties.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare official stated, “Home visits will be a core part of the pilot project for routine prevention and management of elderly people at home,” and added, “We will devise incentives for doctors working in medical institutions to conduct home visits and consider ways to utilize retired doctors who have left the field.”

Pilot Project Target

Housing support services that create elderly residential unit complexes are also being considered. Life support services such as providing vehicles for outings needed to purchase daily necessities or visit medical institutions will be expanded. The Ministry of Health and Welfare also announced a plan to develop specialized services such as meal delivery, laundry, and cleaning, linking them with social services within the community.

Smart care services for the elderly, which respond to emergencies and provide psychological and health support through wearable devices and care robots, will also be expanded. The plan is to increase the number of participating public health centers from only 120 this year to 200 by 2025.

The budget for the integrated medical and care support pilot project for the elderly will be provided by the central government’s budget of 3.24 billion won (as of this year) and local government budgets. After the first evaluation of the pilot project at the end of this year, the contents will be supplemented. Bang Seok-bae, head of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Integrated Care Promotion Team, said, “As the elderly population is expected to increase rapidly with the transition to a super-aged society, the ultimate goal is to institutionalize the pilot project after its completion.”

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