Delayed Patient Access to Innovative Medical Technologies in South Korea: A Lead-Time Analysis of Reimbursement Coverage Determinations

AbstractBackground and ObjectivesTimely access to innovative medical technologies driven by accelerated patient access pathways can substantially improve the health outcomes of patients who often have few therapeutic alternatives. We analyzed lead-times for the medical procedure reimbursement coverage process undertaken in South Korea from 2014 to 2017, which is considered one of the most important factors contributing to delays in patient access to new medical technologies.MethodsThis analysis was performed using the open datasets source of “Medical Procedure Expert Evaluation Committee (MPEEC)” meeting results and medical procedure coverage application information published on the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service Web site.ResultsFrom 2014 to 2017, 90 percent of all new coverage determinations took on average >250 days with almost 20 percent taking more than 2 years (>750 days), The average lead-time from the medical procedure coverage application to MPEEC meeting in 2015 was 435.0 ± 214.7 days (n= 26), which was significantly shorter than the average lead-time in 2014 (624.9 ± 290.3 days,n= 16) (p< .05). The average lead-time from application to official enforcement in 2015 was significantly shorter than that of 2014 (540.8 ± 217.4; n = 16 versus 734.1 ± 299.7 days;n= 26, respectively) (p< .05).ConclusionsWhile this analysis showed a general trend of a reduction in the time taken to receive a positive coverage determination for a new medical technology, the average lead-time remains well over the government mandated 100 days. To continue this trend and further enhance the patient access pathway for medical procedure coverage determinations, some measures can be applied. In particular, the extended “One-Stop Service” program encompassing coverage determinations is one such recommendation that could be considered.

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PP403 New Medical Technology Adoption In Asia Pacific: Focused On South Korea And Japan

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462321001537 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 37 (S1) ◽

pp. 35-35

Author(s):

Hyojung Hwang

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Technology Adoption ◽

South Korea ◽

Medical Technology ◽

Market Access ◽

The United States ◽

Innovative Technology ◽

Patient Access ◽

Medical Technologies ◽

Medicare Coverage

IntroductionThis study is the first to analyze and compare the distinctive market access process of new medical technologies focused on technical fee creation in South Korea and Japan. The purpose of this study is to derive implications for each country through analysis and comparison of the market access process and propose improvements of new medical technology adoption program by referring the United States’ incentive program for innovative technology.MethodsIdentification and review the published articles and health polices, and reports related to the medical procedure (medical technologies) coding and payment rule in South Korea, Japan and the United States.ResultsIn Korea, for the rapid introduction of new medical technologies, a One-Stop Service program (aka parallel review process) is operated that simultaneously conducts regulatory approval and new health technology assessment (nHTA) process. In Japan, the Sakigake designation program aims to give patients better access to innovative pharmaceuticals, medical technologies, and regenerative medicines by streamlining the approval and pricing process but it doesn't provide immediate coverage after approval. Medicare Coverage for Innovative Technology (MCIT) is one of the incentive programs for innovative technology which aims to improve patient access to new medical technologies through rapid market access process in the United States. Medical technologies designated a Breakthrough Device receive immediate Medicare Coverage for 4 years by MCIT.ConclusionsIt is recommended for Korea and Japan to actively implement the accelerated patient access process and grant affordable premium prices for the innovative medical technologies. MCIT can be considered as a breakthrough for innovative medical technology adaption.

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PP032 Holistic Patient Access Processes Of Medical Devices In South Korea

International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care ◽

10.1017/s0266462317002215 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 33 (S1) ◽

pp. 85-86

Author(s):

Sang-Soo Lee ◽

Moo Yeol Lee ◽

Veronica Kim ◽

Kyungja Lee ◽

Young-Kwan Kwon

Keyword(s):

Decision Making ◽

South Korea ◽

Case Studies ◽

Medical Devices ◽

Risk Sharing ◽

Lead Time ◽

Holistic Approach ◽

Patient Access ◽

Coverage Decision

INTRODUCTION:Historically, patient access processes of new and innovative medical devices including in-vitro diagnostics are made in the sequence of regulatory approval, new Health Technology Assessment (nHTA) approval, reimbursement coverage and coding finally reaching the pricing approval stage in South Korea. Although the individual patient access process has its own distinct objective and perspective, there are still opportunities for the authorities or agencies in charge to streamline their processes by working together to promote earlier patient access of new and innovative medical devices to patients without impacting their own decision making.METHODS:This research examined and analyzed the current policies about: patient access processes with a holistic viewpoint, industry-wide survey about patient access practices; case studies of two innovative medical devices for patient access in South Korea and also proposed new or alternative programs which can contribute to patient access harmonization efforts with a holistic approach.RESULTS:Historically, health authorities play defensive strategies by delaying the adoption of new and innovative medical devices and implementing certain periods (that is, 2 to 5 years) for a patient's out-of-pocket payment scheme. It is well illustrated with the statistic that only twenty-nine percent of new and innovative medical technologies which have successfully gone through the nHTA process were determined for reimbursement coverage in the past 7 years.The survey by the medical device industry to determine the patient access lead-time of innovative medical devices with a holistic perspective indicated significantly delayed patient access even considerabley exceeding the legally required decision-making lead time. The in-depth case studies with two innovative devices indicated the disadvantageous patient access processes to the innovator in terms of both final approval timing and the price level.CONCLUSIONS:The concurrent review process for reimbursement coverage decision making for medical procedures, medical devices and reimbursement coverage payment guidelines committed within the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service shall be created. New programs to deal with uncertainty in reimbursement coverage decision making shall be considered such as coverage with evidence development, performance-based risk-sharing arrangement, multi-criteria decision analysis and economic evaluation.

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The Golf Boom in South Korea: Serving Hegemonic Interests

Sociology of Sport Journal ◽

10.1123/ssj.9.4.372 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 372-384 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Minseok An ◽

George H. Sage

Keyword(s):

Economic Growth ◽

South Korea ◽

Political Stability ◽

Golf Courses ◽

Farm Land ◽

The Past ◽

Social Incentives ◽

The Social ◽

Industrial Productivity ◽

The Government

In the past decade, to help maintain political stability and promote economic growth, South Korea has committed substantial resources to commercialized sports, including golf. A major source of support for building golf courses has come from government leaders and economic and social incentives as well. In the past 4 years the government has given permission to build 135 new golf courses. The official government discourse about the new golf courses is that they are being built in the interest of “sport for all.” But the golf courses overwhelmingly require membership, which is extremely expensive. Despite the enormous power and resources of the dominant groups in Korea, there are elements of opposition. The golf boom has been severely criticized because it removes large amounts of land from agricultural and industrial productivity, contaminates farm land, and pollutes water. It also represents the worst aspects of the social imbalance of wealth.

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Digital / Humanities: New Media and Old Ways in South Korea

Asiascape Digital Asia ◽

10.1163/22142312-12340022 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 2 (1-2) ◽

pp. 127-148 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Javier> Cha

Keyword(s):

New Media ◽

South Korea ◽

Digital Humanities ◽

Business Leaders ◽

Online Resources ◽

Korean Government ◽

The Government ◽

Post Industrial ◽

Digital Or

This article outlines the background to the divide between ‘the digital’ and ‘the humanities’ in contemporary South Korea. Since the late 1990s, the government of South Korea has made concerted efforts to digitize information, resulting in increased access to an unusually high quantity of heritage sources. However, the massive investments in the building of online resources have not inspired a ‘digital turn’ in the mainstream of South Korea’s departments in the humanities. This indifference to ‘the digital’, or what might be called a ‘digital/humanities divide’ has a history going back to the 1980s, when the Korean government and business leaders prepared for a post-industrial transition without drawing the interest of humanists and without expecting the nation’s remarkable success inict.

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Finding beneficiaries: trade adjustment assistance system in South Korea

Journal of International Trade Law and Policy ◽

10.1108/jitlp-03-2017-0010 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 92-105 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Joon-heon Song

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Analytical Framework ◽

Policy Preferences ◽

Trade Adjustment Assistance ◽

Content Type ◽

South Korean ◽

Policy Failure ◽

Short Period ◽

Trade Adjustment ◽

The Government

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the essential cause for the policy failure of Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) in South Korea. Design/methodology/approach To substantiate the claims made for the failure of the policy, this paper focuses on the differences in policy preferences among the government ministries and agencies involved in TAA. Findings The failure in the TAA policy, according to this study, was attributed to the conflicts and miscoordination arising from the differences in policy preferences among government ministries and agencies. To rectify this failure, the South Korean government had to revise its laws and regulations several times over a short period. Originality/value Drawing on the analytical framework of the literature on policy failure, this paper examines the causal relationships between outcomes of TAA policy and the conflicts or miscoordination among government bodies at each stage: initiatives and planning, implementation and operation of the policy.

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Capturing Planned Protests from Open Source Indicators

AI Magazine ◽

10.1609/aimag.v37i2.2631 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 37 (2) ◽

pp. 63-75

Author(s):

Sathappan Muthiah ◽

Bert Huang ◽

Jaime Arredondo ◽

David Mares ◽

Lise Getoor ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

News Media ◽

Lead Time ◽

Authoritarian Regimes ◽

Future Time ◽

Civil Unrest ◽

Trade Offs ◽

Soft Logic ◽

Forecasting System ◽

Average Lead

Civil unrest events (protests, strikes, and “occupy” events) are common occurrences in both democracies and authoritarian regimes. The study of civil unrest is a key topic for political scientists as it helps capture an important mechanism by which citizenry express themselves. In countries where civil unrest is lawful, qualitative analysis has revealed that more than 75 percent of the protests are planned, organized, or announced in advance; therefore detecting references to future planned events in relevant news and social media is a direct way to develop a protest forecasting system. We report on a system for doing that in this article. It uses a combination of keyphrase learning to identify what to look for, probabilistic soft logic to reason about location occurrences in extracted results, and time normalization to resolve future time mentions. We illustrate the application of our system to 10 countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Results demonstrate our successes in capturing significant societal unrest in these countries with an average lead time of 4.08 days. We also study the selective superiorities of news media versus social media (Twitter, Facebook) to identify relevant trade-offs.

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Prediction of greenhouse gas emission from municipal solid waste for South Korea

Environmental Engineering Research ◽

10.4491/eer.2019.019 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 25 (4) ◽

pp. 462-469

Author(s):

Kanchan Popli ◽

Jeejae Lim ◽

Hyeon Kyeong Kim ◽

Young Min Kim ◽

Nguyen Thanh Tuu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Municipal Solid Waste ◽

Greenhouse Gas ◽

Solid Waste ◽

Total Population ◽

Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽

Ghg Emission ◽

Dynamics Model ◽

The Government ◽

Business As Usual

This study is proposing a System Dynamics Model for estimating Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emission from treating Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) in South Korea for years 2000 to 2030. The government of country decided to decrease the total GHG emission from waste sector in 2030 as per Business-as-usual level. In context, four scenarios are generated to predict GHG emission from treating the MSW with three processes i.e., landfill, incineration and recycling. For prior step, MSW generation rate is projected for present and future case using population and waste generation per capita data. It is found that population and total MSW are directly correlated. The total population will increase to 56.27 million and total MSW will be 21.59 million tons in 2030. The methods for estimating GHG emission from landfill, incineration and recycling are adopted from IPCC, 2006 guidelines. The study indicates that Scenario 2 is best to adopt for decreasing the total GHG emission in future where recycling waste is increased to 75% and landfill waste is decreased to 7.6%. Lastly, it is concluded that choosing proper method for treating the MSW in country can result into savings of GHG emission.

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Hallyu dan Pengaruhnya pada Perkembangan Objek Wisata Tematik Korea Selatan

Jurnal Pariwisata Terapan ◽

10.22146/jpt.49278 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 76

Author(s):

Yuni Wachid Asrori ◽

Supriadianto Supriadianto

Keyword(s):

South Korea ◽

Tourist Attraction ◽

New Wave ◽

Descriptive Research ◽

Tourism Destinations ◽

The Government ◽

Government Rules

Korean Pop phenomenon, Hallyu, affect to the development of various tourism objects in Seoul and South Korea in general. Hallyu as a new wave is popular among young generations, not only as an entertainment, but also as tourist attraction in South Korea. This phenomenon increased number of travelers to South Korea year by year. This descriptive research analyze qualitatively several tourism objects well known as shooting site of several popular Korean dramas where travelers may experience several things related to Korean dramas. There are not only K-Pop experiences that make Korean tourism popularity increasing rapidly, but also the government rules have also been paving the important way to promote and develop Korean tourism destinations

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Factors Associated with Mental Health among International Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph182111381 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (21) ◽

pp. 11381

Author(s):

Hae Ran Kim ◽

Eun Jung Kim

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

International Students ◽

South Korea ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Sleep Problems ◽

Multiple Logistic Regression Analysis ◽

Health Problems ◽

Web Based ◽

South Korean ◽

The Government

The purpose of this study was to investigate mental health problems among international students in South Korean universities during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to identify the factors that affect their mental health. A total of 488 international students living in South Korea participated in a web-based survey. The questionnaire was created using the Google Forms platform, and a link to the questionnaire was shared through social media. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to analyze the data. The prevalence rates of sleep problems, anxiety, and depression among international students were 47.1%, 39.6%, and 49%, respectively. The prevalence of mental health problems was higher among participants who were male, living with someone, residents of a rural area, and earning a higher income. The following variables were found to contribute to the prevalence of mental health problems: undergraduate student status, good understanding of the Korean language, longer hours of media usage, and experiences related to COVID-19 infection. A collaborative effort between the government and universities to manage the mental health of international students could promote the mental health of these students.

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