[2020 National Audit] "A Man in His 20s Visited Medical Institutions 3,062 Times Last Year"... 20 Times the Health Insurance Burden

Shin Hyun-young: "Unnecessary Medical Use Cases Such as Health Anxiety and Medical Shopping Must Be Investigated"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seo So-jeong] A 21-year-old man visited medical institutions a total of 3,062 times last year, with the National Health Insurance Service bearing costs amounting to 32.43 million won.

According to the '2019 Frequent Outpatient Usage Status' submitted by the National Health Insurance Service to Shin Hyun-young, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, the person who used hospitals the most last year was a 21-year-old man who visited medical institutions 3,062 times.

This man received treatment at 18 different Korean medicine clinics and clinics a total of 3,062 times, including 3,008 visits to Korean medicine clinics without any inpatient care during the past year. Although he paid only 1.51 million won in insurance premiums, the amount borne by the Service exceeded 20 times that, reaching 32.43 million won.

Additionally, among the top 10 people with the highest number of outpatient treatment days at medical institutions last year, seven were in their 20s or younger, one was in their 30s, and two were in their 40s, indicating that most were young people. They rarely used tertiary general hospitals and mostly received concentrated treatment at Korean medicine clinics.

There was also a case suspected of medical shopping, where a 44-year-old man used 192 different medical institutions a total of 384 times.

Representative Shin said, "In order to maintain a sustainable health insurance system, an in-depth case analysis of excessive use is necessary," adding, "The National Health Insurance Service and the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service must thoroughly investigate whether frequent outpatient users are cases of unnecessary medical use such as health anxiety or medical shopping, and whether there are medical institutions abusing the system, and prepare countermeasures."