Buyeo County Reduces Dementia Diagnosis Rate with Social Performance Reward System

Buyeo-gun, Chungnam Province, announced on the 18th that it achieved a 3.4% dementia diagnosis rate among patients with mild cognitive impairment, compared to the national average of 15%, through the Social Impact Bond (SIB) system, which was implemented for the first time among local governments in Korea.

Accordingly, the county will provide a total of 650 million won as performance rewards, including 500 million won for project expenses and 150 million won as incentives, to the operating agencies, implementing agencies, and investment institutions.

The Social Impact Bond (SIB) is a system in which the private sector invests in a public project, and if the performance targets are achieved, the public sector later reimburses the project expenses and pays performance rewards to the private sector.

The county, where 40.8% of the population is over the age of 65, making it a typical super-aged society, introduced a public-private partnership type SIB.

The project targeted 303 patients with mild cognitive impairment aged between 60 and 80, and among the 264 who completed follow-up examinations combining face-to-face services and AI technology, 9 people (3.4%) were diagnosed with dementia.

According to the county, if dementia diagnoses (incidence) are reduced, the estimated annual direct and indirect social cost savings per person, including direct medical expenses and long-term care insurance for the elderly, is about 32 million won.

In addition, the county estimates that, based on 5,753 patients with mild cognitive impairment, the annual social cost savings would be 21.3 billion won, and nationwide, it is expected to save about 7 trillion won in social costs.

County Governor Park Junghyun stated, "Buyeo-gun has verified the potential to improve residents' welfare through the Social Impact Bond system as the first basic local government to do so," and added, "We hope Buyeo-gun's successful model will expand beyond the region and become a national policy."