If You Visited the Hospital Often Last Year, Be Sure to Claim '1.18 Million Won'

Medical Expenses Exceeding Out-of-Pocket Limit Total 720 Billion KRW
610,000 Eligible Recipients Have Not Applied

Last year, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service have been reimbursing those who paid medical expenses exceeding their personal payment ceiling. It is reported that about 30% of eligible individuals have not yet applied for reimbursement.

[Photo by Yonhap News]

On the 19th, the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service announced that out of 1,868,545 people confirmed as eligible for the '2022 medical expenses exceeding the personal payment ceiling,' approximately 610,000 have not yet received their reimbursements.

The total medical expenses they need to claim amount to about 719.9 billion KRW. This means that on average, each person has not received about 1.18 million KRW.

The personal payment ceiling system was introduced in 2004 to reduce household burdens caused by excessive medical expenses. When a patient's health insurance out-of-pocket payments exceed the individual ceiling amount, the excess amount is provided by the National Health Insurance Service.

However, non-covered services, selective benefits, fully self-paid implants, hospital room charges for superior rooms (2-3 person rooms), and partial out-of-pocket payments for Chuna manual therapy are excluded.

The National Health Insurance Service began sending application guidance letters sequentially to eligible recipients for excess medical expense reimbursements starting from the 23rd of last month.

If you have received the guidance letter, you can apply by providing the personal information of the patient and the bank account for reimbursement through visiting, phone, internet, fax, or mail to the local branch of the National Health Insurance Service.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the National Health Insurance Service stated, "As part of this Chuseok holiday livelihood stabilization measure, we will encourage eligible recipients who have received the guidance letter to apply early so that reimbursements for medical expenses exceeding the personal payment ceiling can be made before the holiday," and added, "We will do our best to ensure that the remaining medical expense reimbursements proceed smoothly."

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