The late Professor Byung Yik Kim published an analysis of the financial crisis of Korea's National Health Insurance (NHI) in 2001, which derived from the introduction of the separation of prescribing and dispensing. Subsequently, Kim published another paper on policy suggestions to achieve financial stability of the national health insurance in 2002. In his paper of 2001, he had analyzed two causes of the crisis. First, the stepwise integration of health insurance funds had brought about financial instability since 1998, when regional health insurance funds were integrated into one fund. Second, the introduction of the separation of prescribing and dispensing without recognition of financial instability led to financial crisis. In his 2002 paper, he proposed several policy recommendations, including postpone of financial integration among insurance funds, increasing government subsidies, introducing new financing sources for health insurance, such as an alcohol tax, and implementing cost-containment policies. This paper reviews what was changed in accordance with his policy suggestions over the past 10 years. Many policymakers agreed with his analysis on the causes of financial crisis, however, they did not accept his policy recommendations. Consequently, the Korea National Health Insurance is still financially unstable.
Financial Management ; Financing, Government ; Insurance ; Insurance, Health ; Korea ; National Health Programs ; Taxes

PURPOSE: To evaluate various types and; characteristics of non-retinal lesions associated with ultra-wide field scanning laser ophthalmoscope images. METHODS: This retrospective study included 139 eyes of 139 patients with non-retinal lesions observed on color images obtained using Optomap 200Tx (Optos PLC, Dunfermline, Scotland, UK). The non-retinal lesion is a hyperreflective or hyporeflective shadow due to anterior segment of the eye or vitreous except the retina. Types and characteristics of red laser separation, green laser separation and autofluorescence images of non-retinal lesions were evaluated. RESULTS: All non-retinal lesions in images were categorized into 2 groups according to the location of non-retinal lesions. The anterior non-retinal lesions group included corneal opacity, cataract and posterior capsular opacity. The posterior non-retinal lesions group included asteroid hyalosis, posterior vitreous detachment, vitreous opacity and vitreous hemorrhage. Anterior non-retinal lesions were more often hyporeflective in red and green laser separation images (p < 0.001). Posterior non-retinal lesions were more often hyperreflective in green laser separation images and hyporeflective in red laser separation images (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Ultra-wide field scanning laser ophthalmoscope images can frequently have various shadows from anterior or posterior lesions of the eye. These shadows show a difference in reflectivity depending on their origins. To understand the difference helps in the interpretation of the fundus images.
Cataract ; Corneal Opacity ; Humans ; Ophthalmoscopes* ; Retina ; Retrospective Studies ; Scotland ; Vitreous Detachment ; Vitreous Hemorrhage

Background: This study investigates the influence factors of medical service variations using medical charge and the length of stay (LOS) for urinary incontinence surgery and uterine polypectomy. Methods: The National Health Insurance claims data and Medical Resource Report by the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service in 2016 were used. Frequency analysis, one-way analysis of variance, and Bonferroni post-hoc tests were executed for each surgery. A multilevel analysis was executed to assess the factors to the medical charge and LOS for each surgery in patient, doctor, and hospital level. Results: Fifty-two point eight percent of urinary incontinence surgery and 87.1% of uterine polypectomy were distributed in general and tertiary hospitals. Among three levels, the patient level variation was 61.5% or 77.2% in medical charge and 93.9% or 96.3% in LOS, respectively. The doctor level variation was 29.6% or 22.6% in medical charge and 0.6% or 0.0% in LOS, respectively. The institution level variation was 8.9% or 0.2% in medical charge and 5.5% or 3.7% in LOS, respectively. Number of other disease and organizational type were main factors that affected the charge and LOS for urinary incontinence surgery and uterine polypectomy. Conclusion Medical service variations of the urinary incontinence surgery and uterine polypectomy were the largest for the patient level, followed by doctor level for the medical charge, and the institution level for the LOS.

PURPOSE: To evaluate diagnostic sensitivity of nuclear imaging in the detection of residual thyroid tissue and metastatic lesion, we have compared neck scintigrams with Tc-99m pertechnetate (Tc-99m scan) and high dose I-131 iodide (I-131 scan) in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: One hundred thirty-five thyroidectomized patients for differentiated thyroid cancer were enrolled in this study. Twenty-three had a previous history of radioiodine therapy. Planar and pin-hole images of anterior neck with Tc-99m were acquired at 20 minutes after injection, followed by I-131 scan three days after high-dose radioiodine therapy within 7 days interval. Patients were asked to discontinue thyroid hormone replacement more than 4 weeks. RESULTS: All subjects were in hypothyroid state. Seventy out of 135 patients (51.9%) showed concordant findings between Tc-99m and I-131 scans. I-131 scan showed higher number of uptake foci in all of 65 patients showing discordant finding. Tc-99m scan showed no thyroid bed uptake in 34 patients, whereas 23 of them (67.6%) showed bed uptake in I-131 scan. Tc-99m scan did not show any uptake in thyroid bed in 11 of 112 patients without previous history of radioiodine therapy, but 9 of them showed bed uptake in I-131 scan. Tc-99m scan showed no bed uptake in all of the 23 patients with previous history of radioiodine therapy, in contrast 14 of them (60.9%) showed bed uptake in I-131 scan. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that Tc-99m scan has poor detectability for residual thyroid tissue or metastatic lesion in thyroidectomized differentiated thyroid cancer patients, compared to high dose I-131 therapy scan. Tc-99m scan could not detect any remnant tissue or metastatic lesion in patients with previous history of radioiodine treatment, especially.
Humans ; Neck ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Sodium Pertechnetate Tc 99m* ; Thyroid Gland* ; Thyroid Neoplasms* ; Thyroidectomy*

PURPOSE: Functional imaging of dopamine transporter (DAT) defines integrity of the dopaminergic system, and DAT is the target site of drugs of abuse such as cocaine and methamphetamine. Functional imaging the DAT may be a sensitive and selective indicator of neurotoxic change by the drug. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the clinical implications of qualitative/quantitative analyses of dopamine transporter imaging in methamphetamine abusers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six detoxified methamphetamine abusers (abuser group) and 4 volunteers (control group) were enrolled in this study. Brain MRI was performed in all of abuser group. Abuser group underwent psychiatric and depression assessment using brief psychiatric rating scale (BPRS) and Hamilton depression rating scale (HAMD), respectively. All of the subjects underwent I-123 IPT SPECT (IPT SPECT). IPT SPECT image was analysed with visual qualitative method and quantitative method using basal ganglia dopamine transporter (DAT) specific/non-specific binding ratio (SBR). Comparison of DAT SBR between abuser and control groups was performed. We also performed correlation tests between psychiatric and depression assessment results and DAT SBR in abuser group. RESULTS: All of abuser group showed normal MRI finding, but had residual psychiatric and depressive symptoms, and psychiatric and depressive symptom scores were exactly correlated (r=1.0, p=0.005) each other. Five of them showed abnormal finding on qualitative visual I-123 IPT SPECT. Abuser group had lower basal ganglia DAT SBR than that of control (2.38+/-0.20 vs 3.04+/-0.27, p=0.000). Psychiatric and depressive symptoms were negatively well correlated with basal ganglia DAT SBR (r=-0.908, p=0.012, r=-0.924, p=0.009). CONCLUSION: These results suggest that dopamine transporter imaging using I-123 IPT SPECT may be used to evaluate dopaminergic system of the basal ganglia and the clinical status in methamphetamine abusers.
Basal Ganglia* ; Brain ; Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ; Cocaine ; Depression ; Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins* ; Dopamine* ; Magnetic Resonance Imaging ; Methamphetamine* ; Street Drugs ; Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon* ; Volunteers