Remote Medical Industry Council "Strong Regret Over Follow-up Focused Telemedicine... Threat to Industry Survival"

The non-face-to-face medical platform industry has expressed strong regret over the government's announcement of the principle to promote the institutionalization of non-face-to-face medical care centered on returning patients.

The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop) under the Korea Startup Forum issued a statement on the 15th, saying, "The Ministry of Health and Welfare revealed its lack of will to reform remote medical regulations by announcing usage status and performance based on the principle of promoting the institutionalization of non-face-to-face medical care centered on returning patients agreed upon with the Korean Medical Association."

Wonsanhyeop further strongly criticized, "It thoroughly ignores the proven safety and benefits, as well as the trust capital formed among doctors, patients, and pharmacists, while 13.79 million citizens used 36.61 million cases of non-face-to-face medical care."

Moreover, despite President Yoon Seok-yeol promising the legalization of non-face-to-face medical care during his candidacy and pledging a shift to 'negative regulation,' the current non-face-to-face medical care promoted by health authorities is a clear 'positive regulation' only for returning patients, they sharply criticized.

They added, "This returning patient-centered non-face-to-face medical care system, which hinders medical accessibility for working moms and office workers and threatens the survival of the non-face-to-face medical platform industry, mostly composed of young startups, contrary to the government's comprehensive bio-health new industry regulatory innovation efforts, is defined as a 'retrogressive new remote medical regulation law.'"

Wonsanhyeop urged the government and the National Assembly to stop institutionalizing non-face-to-face medical care that reverts to the pre-COVID-19 era and to reflect the voices of the public and industry during the institutionalization process, deciding to deliver the statement to the leaders of both ruling and opposition parties.

Jang Ji-ho, co-chairman of Wonsanhyeop, emphasized, "Under the current scope of returning patients defined by health authorities, patients with mild illnesses such as colds, rhinitis, and indigestion cannot use non-face-to-face medical care, and the same applies to infants and single-person households who do not frequently visit hospitals. Since the safety and benefits of current non-face-to-face medical care have been proven by Ministry of Health and Welfare data, a system should be established so that all citizens can use it anytime and anywhere."