Ministry of Health and Welfare proposes amendments to Medical Service Act enforcement decree

Collective clinic closures, wartime conditions also listed as grounds for expanded access

A doctor conducts a telemedicine consultation over the phone. [Yonhap]
A doctor conducts a telemedicine consultation over the phone. [Yonhap]

Telemedicine will be permitted when in-person care becomes difficult due to emergencies such as natural disasters, infectious disease outbreaks or wartime conditions, under a proposed revision to South Korea's medical regulations.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare recently announced a legislative notice for amendments to the enforcement decree of the Medical Service Act. The move prepares for the Dec. 24 implementation of a revised Medical Service Act that formally institutionalizes telemedicine.

Under the proposed decree, telemedicine would be allowed when a Serious-level crisis alert is issued under the Framework Act on Disaster and Safety Management, or when an Alert-level crisis alert is issued due to the spread of an infectious disease. Situations in which in-person care is significantly difficult due to wartime, armed conflict or equivalent emergencies are also covered.

The proposal also lists collective closures or suspension of services by medical professionals or clinic operators as grounds for relaxing telemedicine restrictions when in-person care becomes significantly difficult as a result.

The amendments further spell out the administrative framework for operating the telemedicine system.

The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service will be tasked with receiving, investigating, analyzing and compiling statistics on non-covered telemedicine treatment records submitted by medical professionals and clinic operators. Work related to the submission of non-covered treatment records as determined by the health and welfare minister will also fall under its remit.

The National Health Insurance Service will be responsible for building and operating the telemedicine support system and the electronic prescription delivery system, while the Korea Health Information Service will handle registration and certification of telemedicine intermediary platforms.

The Korea Health Information Service will process registration and certification applications from those seeking to provide or operate telemedicine intermediary platforms, as well as handle certification renewals, revocations and related assessments.

The amendments also establish a legal basis for processing sensitive health information and unique identification data — including resident registration numbers and foreign registration numbers — in the course of carrying out telemedicine-related duties.

The proposal also sets out fines for those who fail to submit required data on non-covered treatment records or telemedicine system operations, or who submit false information.

Failure to submit non-covered treatment records will carry a fine of 600,000 won ($444), while submitting false records will result in a fine of 1 million won. Separate fine standards will apply for failing to submit or falsely submitting data required for system construction and operation.

Meanwhile, the current Medical Service Act in principle limits telemedicine to clinic-level medical institutions.

However, exceptions allow hospital-level institutions to provide telemedicine in unavoidable cases — including for patients with rare diseases, type 1 diabetes, those held in correctional facilities, and patients requiring post-surgical monitoring.

Clinic-level institutions will remain the default, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, but the specific scope of "unavoidable cases" permitting telemedicine at hospital-level institutions will be defined in the implementing rules.


thlee@heraldcorp.com