UAE gov’t audit shows patients getting gouged at Korean hospitals

Costs for S. Koreans and foreigners at Seoul National University Hospital

The government of the United Arab Emirates recently conducted an audit on the appropriateness of treatment costs at several South Korean hospitals.

It was the first attempt by the country to investigate South Korean medical costs since it first began subsidizing the treatment of patients in South Korea with a Nov. 2011 international patient sending agreement.

According to an Abu Dhabi Health Authority patient sending audit provided by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute on Apr. 2 to New Politics Alliance for Democracy lawmaker Nam In-soon, the agency sent two employees to conduct an audit of South Korean medical centers over a six-day period from Mar. 22 to 27. The list included around ten large hospitals that have received many patients from the UAE, including Seoul National University Hospital.

The aim of the Abu Dhabi Health Authority’s audit was to verify the appropriateness of charges for treatment, food, interpretation, and transportation for UAE patients in South Korea. It was also seen as an attempt to see whether the medical costs charged to UAE patients by the medical centers were justified.

Previous allegations have been raised about some South Korean hospitals charging up to three to four times more to treat international patients from the UAE and elsewhere than domestic patients - without any clear reason for the discrepancy. Indeed, an investigation by the Hankyoreh found that international patients at Seoul National University Hospital were being charged an optional treatment registration fee of 60,000 won (US$54.90) and an ordinary registration fee of 50,000 won (US$45.70) as an “international fee.” The amount was significantly higher than the 22,270 won (US$20.40) charged to domestic patients for optional treatment registration.

“Typically, it comes out to around three to five times the examination fee [for domestic patients],” said a source in the administrative division at Yonsei Severance Hospital on charges to international patients.

“For instance, if the ordinary examination fee is 20,000 won (US$18.30), then [a foreign patient] will have to pay 60,000 won (US$54.90),” the source explained. “There are also various test fees, which might cost a domestic patient 100,000 to 200,000 won (US$91.40-182.90), while a foreigner would pay almost one million won (US$914.40). It can get quite expensive.”

Attention is focusing on why the UAE government would take the unusual step of sending a team of auditors all the way to South Korea to confirm medical costs.

One reason could be that the South Korean government and media have bragged about how much money is being made from each patient from the Middle East and suggest that this is a backlash to such reporting.

“The UAE government is apparently very disappointed in how the South Korean government and some media outlets have placed an excessive focus on medical profits and have seemed to treat Middle Eastern patients as a cash cow. Suggestions have been made that the media should refrain from conducting interviews about medical earnings at hospitals that treat a lot of foreign patients,” said a source at one large hospital in Seoul.

In a report about performance in the area of medical exports on Mar. 31, the Ministry of Health and Welfare actually announced that the South Korean medical industry had made 60 billion won (US$54.99 million) just from treating patients sent by the UAE government between 2012 and 2014. Since a total of 1,245 such patients visited South Korea during this period, an average of 48.19 million won (US$44,167) was spent per person.

“In theory, the Abu Dhabi Health Office is supposed to carry out an annual audit one year after the government sends a patient overseas. However, this audit has been repeatedly delayed and is being carried out for the first time this year,” the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI) said when asked about the issue.

“Because of their special needs, it would not be appropriate to make a direct comparison of foreign patients and domestic patients. The quality of medical care at South Korean hospitals is not at all backward. It would be more appropriate to compare the cost with medical treatment in developed parts of the world such as the US and Europe,” said a source at Seoul National University Hospital.

　

By Choi Sung-jin, staff reporter

　

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