Consumer Group: "Stop Groundless Opposition from Medical Community to Digitalization of Real-Expense Insurance Claims"

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Hyung-gil] The Korea Consumer Organization Federation stated on the 3rd, "The digitization of claims for indemnity health insurance should prioritize enhancing consumer benefits. It is time to stop the futile disputes based on unfounded opposition from the medical community and promptly pass the amendment to the Insurance Business Act."

In a statement released that day, the Consumer Organization Federation explained, "Simplifying indemnity insurance claims is essential because many consumers who should rightfully claim insurance benefits have given up due to the submission of paper documents, causing widespread dissatisfaction among the public. The digitization opposed by the medical community does not involve any difference in the information provided to insurers; it merely proposes sending the same information previously submitted on paper in a convenient electronic document format."

They continued, "When patients request that their medical expense receipts be electronically sent to insurers during indemnity insurance claims, the proposal is to provide this through a computerized system. Claims by the medical community that 'insurers can automatically collect and store customers' sensitive information' or that 'personal information protection is difficult' are merely arguments against the digitization for the sake of opposition," they pointed out.

Furthermore, they criticized, "Behind the medical community's opposition is the concern that once digitized, non-reimbursed information unknown to anyone will be accessed by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) and that insurers will accumulate data exposing hospital treatment costs related to fraudulent or excessive claims, leading to outright opposition to digitization itself. This is a hollow claim aimed at preventing the exposure of non-reimbursed information under the guise of personal information protection."

In particular, the Consumer Organization Federation emphasized, "Democratic Party lawmaker Min Hyung-bae has argued that 'the voices of stakeholders such as the medical community must be fully reflected before processing the bill.' We want to ask whether the voices of interest groups are more important than those of consumers," they stressed.

They added, "Since the issue of simplifying indemnity insurance claims has formed a national consensus through over ten years of discussion, we hope that opposition based on the medical community's self-interested claims will cease. The matter should be viewed solely from the perspective of enhancing consumer benefits, and we look forward to the prompt passage of the bill," they concluded.