[News Today] INDEMNITY INSURANCE REFORM

[LEAD]
Reports are surfacing of hospitals recommending unnecessary treatments to indemnity health insurance subscribers. To combat this, the government intends to establish pricing standards for frequently misused treatments and increase the subscribers' out-of-pocket costs.

[REPORT]
An ad sent to potential customers by a traditional medicine clinic in Seoul.

It says hospitalization and medical services are all covered by indemnity health insurance, also known as fee-for-service insurance. To lure customers, the message even contains the phrase "traditional medicine staycation."

Subscriber to indemnity insurance /
The clinic says all manual therapy services are covered by the first-generation
health insurance.

Subscriber to indemnity insurance / (VOICE MODIFIED)
They provide consultations with health insurance coverage as a prerequisite.

Excessive medical treatment mostly includes non-covered services such as manual therapy and nutritional injections.

It is criticized for causing spikes in health insurance costs and luring doctors to more lucrative fields like orthopedics or dermatology, thus undermining essential health care.

The government has decided to impose control on some non-covered medical services by designating fees and setting patients' out-of-pocket rate at 90-95%.

The number of therapy sessions will also be limited to prevent excessive treatment.

Seo Nam-kyu / National Health Insurance Service
The increase in medical costs, amount of treatment and fee difference is especially noticeable in some services.

Medical indemnity fee-for-service health insurance plans will also be overhauled by slashing benefits for non-serious illnesses and non-covered medical services.

Some insurance consumer and medical organzations blasted the government's plan for reducing insurance subscribers' benefits and hospitals' revenues.