Hospitals Face Fines for Admitting Fake Patients

Beginning in November, hospitals and clinics will be subject to two million won in fines if they slack off in monitoring patients hospitalized for traffic accidents.

This is expected to help reduce the number of “fake patients” who admit themselves to hospitals to seek insurance claims, even though they are in good shape.

According to non-life insurance industry sources on August 22, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation (MOCT) decided to announce the revised version of the Automobile Accident Compensation Security Act and implement the act beginning November 18 to strengthen management of traffic accident patients by hospitals. The revised act states that patients admitted for traffic accidents must receive permission from the hospital when they go out or stay out for a night, and that the hospital should preserve the patient’s profile and reason for the outing for three years.

The MOCT said in an analysis on the effect of the revised act that insurance companies could save unnecessary spending on fake patients, which would in turn benefit policy holders by preventing a hike in premiums, reducing a significant amount of social cost.

Meanwhile, in a joint survey conducted on 17,692 patients hospitalized in 3,164 hospitals and clinics nationwide by the Korean Non-Life Insurance Association and 14 non-insurance companies, the absence rate stood at as much as 16.6 percent, with 2930 patients out of their beds.

legman@donga.com