An oriental medicine doctor, hospital staff, and others were brought to trial and fined for brokering traffic accident patients and exchanging hundreds of millions of won in illicit payments.
On September 5, Judge Jeon Heesook of the Gwangju District Court's 9th Criminal Division announced that she had sentenced eight people, including Doctor A (50) and hospital staff member B (48), who were indicted on charges of violating the Medical Service Act, to fines ranging from 1 million to 20 million won each.
The court also ordered some of the defendants to forfeit between 8.44 million and 46.55 million won.
Doctor A and others were indicted for receiving and giving a total of 323.72 million won in cash from October 2019 to March 2023 as compensation for brokering the hospitalization of traffic accident victims and other patients. The brokerage fee was set as a certain percentage of the patient's out-of-pocket payment to the hospital.
The court stated, "Brokering patients or instigating such acts for profit leads to unfair competition, disrupts order in the medical market, and may lower the quality of care provided to patients," adding, "The severity of the offense is significant."
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