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KMID : 0387319990090010072
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Korean Journal of Health Policy and Administration
1999 Volume.9 No. 1 p.72 ~ p.109
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Regional Difference of Health Care Utilization in Korea
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Shin Young-Jeon
Lee Weon-Young
Moon Ok-Ryun
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Abstract
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This study is conducted to investigate the current status on the utilization of health care and plan for solving this problem. The claims data of the fiscal year 1995 obtained from the regional health insurance society are used for the study. The main findings of the study are summarized as follows.
Indexes(The External Quotient(EQ), coefficients of variance(CV´s)) which represent the regional difference in the admission rate of the tertiary medical diagnosis group report that there is difference in quantity and quality of utilization of health care.
The admission rate is lower in the big city areas, Kyoungkido, Kangwondo and Chunlapukdo. Even after age-sex adjustment, the admission rate is still low in Kangwondo, Chunlapukdo and Kyoungsangpukdo. The big city ares tend to have higher rates in the expenses per claim, hospital days per claim, and daily expenses but the rates are still low in some area in Kangwondo, Chunlanamdo and Kyoungsangpukdo. This result remains as same after age-sex adjustment.
There is a large regional difference in average utilization rate for the tertiary hospital of the tertiary medical diagnosis group: 57.2%(SD 11.53). The utilization rates for the tertiary hospital in their large catchment area are 96.34%, 83.19% and 73.22% in each Kyoungin, Kyoungnam and Kyoungpuk areas whereas it is lower in Chungpuk and Chungnam area.
The regional differences of health care utilization of the tertiary medical diagnosis group have some relationships with their geographical characteristics such as socioeconomic characteristics and supply factors of medical services.
It is important that many medical policies should be developed in order to minimize and balance out the regional differences of health care utilization. The service allocation policy should include the reconstruction of manpower policy, developing the resource allocating formula, finding the self-sufficient catchment area and reforcing of public health services. Moreover, in order to achieve the balanced development by region, they should investigate and consider each county´s microscopic properties under the consistent macroscopic policy. The further studies to find causes of regional difference are needed.
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KEYWORD
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utilization of health care, regional difference
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