Nylon Patients Face Forced Release
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Bogus patients, known here as ``nylon patients'' who stay longer than necessary in hospital to get higher insurance payouts, are no longer going to be tolerated. Those faking or exaggerating their injuries are described as ``nylon'' as the quality of the synthetic fiber is viewed as inferior to cotton.
The government will submit a revised insurance bill authorizing the forced eviction of such patients at a regular session of the National Assembly in September, according to the Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Thursday.
Under the plan, medical institutions will be entitled to order patients to leave or be transferred to other hospitals if their prolonged stay is diagnosed unnecessary by doctors. In that event, hospitals are obliged to inform patients and insurance companies of the reasons for the forced release. Also, they must provide all treatment records for the next hospital.
The ministry hopes the revised law will take care of patients abusing their insurance in this way. ``We've drawn up the new bill to block over-treatments and overpayment of insurance money. At the same time, it will leave more room for patients who really need it,'' a ministry official said.
According to the General Insurance Association of Korea, seven in 10 patients injured in traffic accidents end up in hospital, even though 95 percent sustain only slight injuries. In comparison, only 9 percent of people in traffic accidents are hospitalized in Japan.
However, it remains to be seen how doctors will enforce the new move as the doctors can also derive benefit from the unwelcome patients. The revised bill makes no mention of penalizing lenient doctors.