July 10, 2026 Newswires

New Health and Medicine Findings Has Been Reported by Researchers at Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (Mortality, Health Care Use, and Spending Patterns During South Korea’s Trainee Physicians’ Walkout): Health and Medicine

South Korea Daily Report

2026 JUL 10 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at South Korea Daily Report -- Investigators publish new report on Health and Medicine. According to news reporting originating from Wonju, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “In February 2024, the South Korean government announced plans to increase medical school enrollment by 2000 students to address physician shortages, prompting opposition from the medical community. More than 90% of trainee physicians joined a nationwide walkout that continued through August 2025, but its systemwide implications remain unclear.”

Our news editors obtained a quote from the research from Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, “To examine the association of the trainee physicians’ walkout with mortality, health care use, and spending patterns in South Korea. This retrospective cohort study used nationwide health insurance claims data and a historical-control event-study design. Data from 200 teaching hospitals before and after the walkout in week 8 of 2024 were compared, using October 2023 to September 2024 as the exposed year and October 2022 to September 2023 as the historical control. The primary outcomes were mortality, health care use, and spending per encounter measured weekly at the hospital level. The association between the trainee physicians’ walkout and hospital-level outcomes was assessed using a group-time average treatment effect framework. The analysis included 7 719 828 patients with inpatient admissions (3 520 242 [45.6%] aged 65 years; 3 883 073 [50.3%] female) and 41 891 392 with outpatient visits (17 552 493 [41.9%] aged 65 years; 21 992 981 [52.5%] female). The walkout was associated with a 0.008-percentage point increase in weekly mortality among hospital users (95% CI, 0.000 to 0.015 percentage points) and a 0.39-percentage point increase in 30-day mortality after hospitalization (95% CI, 0.24 to 0.54 percentage points), concentrated among admissions for general conditions. These associations were largest early in the walkout and attenuated over time. The walkout was associated with reductions in both inpatient and outpatient use, with a larger relative decline for inpatient care (decrease of 19.2 hospitalizations per 10 million people; 95% CI, -24.1 to -14.3 per 10 million people [-17.3%] vs decrease of 158 outpatient visits per 10 million people; 95% CI, -198 to -118 visits [-8.6%]), and with higher mean spending per hospitalization (US $301; 95% CI, $202-$399). Hospitalizations for general conditions showed the largest relative decline in service volume (-23.5%) and the greatest increase in mean spending per hospitalization (US $242; 95% CI, $108 to $375), whereas mortality, use, and spending for complex conditions remained stable. Little evidence of care shifting to nonteaching hospitals was found. In this retrospective cohort study of teaching hospitals in South Korea, the trainee physicians’ walkout was associated with small, short-term increases in mortality, reductions in hospital use, and higher spending per encounter, concentrated among admissions for general conditions. Outcomes for complex conditions were largely unchanged, suggesting that teaching hospitals prioritized high-acuity care.”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “Rapid hospital and governmental responses may have helped limit harm and support resource allocation.”

For more information on this research see: Mortality, Health Care Use, and Spending Patterns During South Korea’s Trainee Physicians’ Walkout. JAMA Network Open, 2026;9(7). JAMA Network Open can be contacted at: Amer Medical Assoc, 330 N Wabash Ave, Ste 39300, Chicago, IL 60611-5885, USA.

The news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Ji-Sook Choi, HIRA Policy Research Institute, Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, Wonju, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include David D. Kim, Hee Sun Jung, Soontack Kwon, Won Mo Jang, Hayoung Jang, Hwan Bin Choi and Sungchul Park.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2026.22131. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.