Study Data from Woosuk University Update Knowledge of Complementary and Alternative Medicine (Utilization Trends and Concentration Ratio of Korean Medicine: Based on the National Health Insurance Data): Complementary and Alternative Medicine

Health & Medicine Business Daily

2021 OCT 13 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Investigators publish new report on complementary and alternative medicine. According to news reporting from Woosuk University by NewsRx journalists, research stated, “Although Korean Medicine (KM) subsidized by the National Health Insurance (NHI) has been used for a long time, there has been no active analysis using claims data. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the NHI KM utilization trend using NHI statistics and to measure the level of market concentration by year.”

Our news reporters obtained a quote from the research from Woosuk University: “By restructuring the contents of NHI Statistics for Pharmaceuticals for 2010-2019, the claim cases, costs, and annual growth rates of KM were demonstrated by year, sex, age group, region, therapeutic group, and KM treatment. The proportion of highly used k treatments in cost was calculated as the concentration ratio (CR) k and its trend by year was investigated. In 2019, the NHI cost on KM amounted to 38.2 billion KRW, increasing by 11.6% per year on average in 2010-2019. Notably, KM was used more frequently among women and patients aged 65 years, and the mixed formulation accounted for 95% of the total cost of KM. The CR of the simple formulation increased rapidly, whereas that of the mixed formulation remained constant. In 2019, three simple formulation treatments-peony, licorice, and ginseng- accounted for 93.8% of the total cost for KM (CR3 = 93.8%).”

According to the news editors, the research concluded: “NHI KM is rapidly increasing. Investigating the CR of KM confirmed that KM prescriptions have been concentrated in small numbers over the past 10 years.”

For more information on this research see: Utilization Trends and Concentration Ratio of Korean Medicine: Based on the National Health Insurance Data. Journal of Pharmacopuncture, 2021,24(3):142-151. (Journal of Pharmacopuncture - http://journal.ac). The publisher for Journal of Pharmacopuncture is Korean Pharmacopuncture Institute.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.3831/KPI.2021.24.3.142.

Our news journalists report that more information may be obtained by contacting Hye-Jae Lee, Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Woosuk University, Wanju, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Hye In Jeong, Kyeong Han Kim.