Health Policy Manag.  2021 Sep;31(3):344-354. 10.4332/KJHPA.2021.31.3.344.

The Effect of the National Health Insurance Coverage of Chuna Therapy on the Costs and Service Uses of Chuna Therapy in Automobile Insurance Oriental Medical Institutions

• Kim KH
• Cho HK
• Lee KS

• KMID: 2525758
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4332/KJHPA.2021.31.3.344

Abstract

Background
The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of national health insurance coverage of Chuna therapy in April 2019 on the costs and service uses in automobile insurance.
Methods
This study used the claim data from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. A total of 189,912 inpatients and 1,550,497 outpatients who received Chuna therapy covered by automobile insurance in oriental medical institutions were included. The analysis period was from July 2018 to December 2019, and a total of 18 months before and after April 2019, when Chuna therapy was covered by national health insurance. Interrupted time series analysis was applied to analyze the impact on the costs and service uses of Chuna therapy in automobile insurance before and after April 2019.
Results
From July 2018 to December 2019, for 189,912 inpatients the cost and the number of times for Chuna therapy per capita were increased by 22.0% and decreased by 7.3% respectively right after the implementation of the policy. In the case of 1,550,497 outpatients, the cost of Chuna therapy per capita tends to be increased by 0.4% in overall study periods and increased 28.4% immediately after the implementation of the policy. Meanwhile, the number of times and visits for Chuna therapy per capita tends to be increased by 0.4% in overall study periods but decreased by 0.4% after the implementation of the policy.
Conclusion
Results suggest that if the national health insurance coverage of oriental medicine services increases according to the policy stance for benefit expansion in national health insurance, the criteria for providing national health insurance benefits should be considered with the comprehensive impacts on the costs and service uses of automobile insurance.

Keyword

Costs; Service uses; Chuna therapy; Automobile insurance; National health insurance