HIRA president proposes region-based integrated care network for veterans

Plan calls for linking veterans' care with essential local medicine, building data hub

Hong Seung-kwon, president of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, delivers a keynote address at the 33rd Academic Conference of the Korean Society of Veterans Health on Saturday at the Central Veterans Hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service]
Hong Seung-kwon, president of the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, delivers a keynote address at the 33rd Academic Conference of the Korean Society of Veterans Health on Saturday at the Central Veterans Hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. [Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service]

The president of South Korea's Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service said veterans' healthcare must go beyond honoring those who served the nation and take on a central role in public medicine that protects the health of local communities.

Hong Seung-kwon made the remarks Saturday in a keynote address at the 33rd Academic Conference of the Korean Society of Veterans Health, held at the Central Veterans Hospital in Gangseo-gu, Seoul. The conference focused on innovations in veterans' services to meet the challenges of a super-aged society.

Hong proposed three key initiatives to advance veterans' healthcare: establishing a regional care responsibility network — tentatively named the Veterans Lifestyle Care Network — linking veterans' hospitals, contracted hospitals and essential local medical services; introducing a fast-track, one-stop review system for veterans' medical expenses; and building a patient-centered veterans' healthcare data hub through cross-institutional data integration.

"We will continue to actively contribute to the development of veterans' healthcare by leveraging HIRA's specialized review and assessment capabilities and its health data infrastructure," Hong said.

Meanwhile, HIRA has been pursuing focused reviews through a dedicated task force to improve the efficiency of veterans' medical expense assessments. The agency is also pushing ahead with reforms to its veterans' healthcare review system, including developing an integrated first- and second-tier claims review framework and expanding customized computerized review processes.


thlee@heraldcorp.com