"540,000 People Visited Hospitals Over 100 Times in a Year... Increased by 6% in 3 Years"

Assemblyman Park Heeseung, One Patient's 2,000+ 'Medical Shopping' Visits
17.5 Annual Outpatient Visits per Person in 2022... 3 Times OECD Average

The number of people who received outpatient treatment at hospitals more than 100 times a year has increased by nearly 6% over the past three years, indicating a rise in suspected cases of indiscriminate 'medical shopping.'

According to data received on the 22nd from the National Health Insurance Service by Park Heeseung, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the total number of people who received outpatient treatment more than 100 times last year was 542,638, an increase of 5.8% compared to 512,970 in 2020.

By age group, those over 60 accounted for 418,042 people, making up 77.0% of the total number of outpatient visits exceeding 100 times. However, the number of outpatient visits exceeding 100 times for children under 10 increased the most, rising 4.2 times from 4,999 in 2020 to 20,847 last year.

The patient who received the most outpatient treatments last year was a man in his 50s, who visited the hospital 2,535 times alone due to other soft tissue (tendons, ligaments, blood vessels, etc.) disorders. This figure would require visiting a medical institution about 7 times a day for 365 days. This man's total medical expenses last year amounted to 39,569,000 KRW, with 26,253,000 KRW paid by health insurance benefits.

The average annual number of outpatient visits per patient among the top 1 to 10 patients who received the most outpatient treatments last year was 1,419 times.

The severity of such medical shopping is even more pronounced when compared to foreign countries. As of 2022, the average number of outpatient visits per person in South Korea was 17.5 times per year, the highest among OECD member countries, which is 2.8 times the OECD average of 6.3 visits.

With the continued overuse of medical services, concerns about the depletion of health insurance finances are growing. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the cumulative balance of health insurance finances (applying an insurance premium rate of 8% and a government subsidy rate of 14%) is expected to turn into a deficit of 32 trillion KRW by 2030, reaching deficits of 2,518 trillion KRW by 2050 and 5,765 trillion KRW by 2060.

Lawmaker Park pointed out, "Medical shopping is one of the major causes of the deterioration of health insurance finances," and emphasized, "Strong measures against medical shopping are necessary for the sustainability of health insurance."

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