By Kim Rahn
Hospitals collected a combined total of 15.6 billion in medical fees by charging more than necessary to patients over the last three years, according to a report.
They were ordered to pay back the excess to patients, Rep. Choi Dong-ic of the Democratic United Party said Wednesday based on the report by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.
According to the report, patients asked the agency to review whether their medical fees were properly assessed in 93,393 cases of treatment between 2009 and 2011. It discovered that overcharging took place in 40,650 cases, or 43.5 percent of the total.
Following the review, hospitals refunded 15.6 billion won.
The overcharging was more rampant at large-sized hospitals.
In the majority of cases, hospitals recorded treatments, which were covered by national health insurance, as not covered and made patients pay for them.
Choi said hospitals take advantage of the fact that health authorities cannot check improper charging for non-covered treatments without conducting inspections. Some hospitals also overcharged patients who stayed in higher quality, private sick wards.
“Patients usually pay medical fees without suspecting that they may be overcharged, and it is difficult for people who are not experts in medicine, to check whether the fees are correct. Taking advantage of this, hospitals are ripping off the unsuspecting patients,” Choi said.
“The public should know that a review system exists so it will be more widely used, and hospitals will stop overcharging,” he said.
The insurance review agency said the nation needs to adopt a punishment system for overcharging. “Currently, such hospitals only have to pay back the fees as punitive measures are not applied,” an official of the agency said.
“For hospitals which have many such cases, punishment may be more effective, but the government and the National Assembly haven’t discussed the issue yet,” she said.