Government Finalizes 'Follow-up Visit Principle' for Telemedicine... Industry Says "Inconvenience Falls on the Public"

Non-face-to-face Medical Treatment
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The government’s temporary allowance of non-face-to-face medical consultations during the COVID-19 pandemic will be reinstated next month, focusing on returning patients and clinic-level medical institutions. Platform companies have expressed their regrets regarding this. The Remote Medical Industry Council (Wonsanhyeop), composed of platform companies and others, stated in a press release on the 30th, “The Ministry of Health and Welfare claimed to have gathered industry opinions when announcing this pilot project plan, but this is not true,” adding, “The extremely limited beneficiary restrictions mean that all the damage and inconvenience fall on the public.”

On the same day, the Ministry of Health and Welfare finalized at the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee a plan to change the non-face-to-face medical consultations, which were used without distinguishing between initial and returning patients during the COVID-19 pandemic, into a pilot project centered on returning patients starting June 1. For chronic disease patients, non-face-to-face consultations are allowed only if they have received face-to-face treatment within one year; for other diseases, within 30 days. Initial consultations are permitted only in a limited manner for residents in remote mountainous areas, the elderly, disabled persons, and confirmed infectious disease patients.

For pediatric patients, medical consultations excluding prescriptions are allowed only during holidays and nighttime even if there is no record of face-to-face treatment. Regarding this, Wonsanhyeop said, “The ban on non-face-to-face prescriptions for pediatric patients during nighttime and holidays is a decision that ignores the suffering of childcare households,” and added, “We want to question the government whether there is any will to resolve the pediatric crisis and whether this pilot project plan for non-face-to-face consultations helps alleviate the overcrowding problem in pediatrics. Ultimately, the government has ignored the pain of childcare couples,” raising their voices.

Wonsanhyeop

Wonsanhyeop also stated, “While the number of people eligible to use non-face-to-face consultations has been drastically reduced, the fees for the medical community have been increased.” The fees for the non-face-to-face consultation pilot project were decided at a level where, in addition to the consultation fee and basic dispensing fee for medical institutions and pharmacies respectively, a ‘pilot project management fee’ of 30% is added. Wonsanhyeop said, “Even referring to overseas cases, it is hard to find a country where the fee for telemedicine is higher than that for general medical consultations,” and added, “Non-face-to-face consultations should proceed in a way that increases convenience by allowing medical services to be enjoyed anytime and anywhere, while reducing the financial burden.”

Wonsanhyeop emphasized, “To prevent public confusion, prompt changes to the pilot project are urgent. The pilot project plan announced with only two days remaining will inevitably lead to confusion among the public and medical staff who use non-face-to-face consultations,” and stressed, “A pilot project consultative body including the industry should be formed, and institutional improvements should be made during the guidance period.”