Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) recently announced the “Health Insurance Coverage Policy”, which aims to increase reimbursement coverage to 70% by 2020. The new plan will cover close to 4,000 devices and medical services that are deemed essential to medical treatment but are not currently covered by the public insurance plan. The MOHW also plans to increase the number of healthcare providers paid under the Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) plan from 42 to over 200 public hospitals. Participating hospitals will receive financial incentives to reach this goal by 2022. Together, these new insurance changes will affect healthcare providers, along with medical device manufacturers and importers, who will be pushed to make strategic reimbursement decisions when undergoing the device registration process.
