Study on Hospital Care Services between Insured and Non-insured Patients for Selected Diagnoses in Korea.
- Author:
Seung Hum YU
1
Author Information
- Publication Type:Original Article ; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- Keywords: Health services; Health insurance; Hospital care; Korea
- MeSH: Adult; Diagnosis-Related Groups; Female; Health Services/standards*; Hospitalization/economics*; Human; Insurance, Health*; Insurance, Health, Reimbursement; Korea; Length of Stay; Male; Middle Age; Quality of Health Care
- From:Yonsei Medical Journal 1983;24(1):6-32
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Rapidly expanding health insurance programs have accompanied the rapid economic development of Korea over the past five years. Now more than thirty percent of the total population is covered by the various health insurance plans. The objective of this study is to discover differences that may exist in medical care services in terms of quantity, length of stay, charges and quality of care in treating insured and non-insured patients. Five common diagnostic categories (name1y, appendectomy cholecystectomy, tonsillectomy, Cesarean section and respiratory tract infection) were examined. The results confirmed the major hypotheses of the study, although some of the results were in the expected direction but not statistically significant: total hospital charges and charges per day were higher among the non-insured; volume of services was greater among the insured; length of stay was longer among the insured; quality of care did not show statistically significant differences in treatment outcomes and complications.
