The government plans to begin in earnest in the second half of next year to reduce nursing care costs at long-term care hospitals, which individuals currently pay 100% out of pocket. It will also improve the structure in which one person looks after multiple patients to raise the quality of care.
To that end, it plans to spend about 650 billion won by 2030 to cut the out-of-pocket rate for nursing care costs to around 30%. Starting next year with support of 270 billion won for nursing care costs and 100 billion won for fee increases, it plans to inject 5.2 trillion won for nursing care costs and 1.3 trillion won for fee increases over five years through 2030.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare held a public hearing on the "medical-focused long-term care hospital (tentative name) innovation and coverage of nursing care" at the Royal Hotel Seoul on the 22nd and outlined this direction for expanding coverage. This is one of the 123 state tasks.
According to the ministry, to achieve this it will increase the number of medical-focused long-term care hospitals to as many as 500 to care for patients with severe conditions or higher. A medical-focused long-term care hospital will be designated as a hospital that treats a certain minimum proportion of patients with high medical needs and is equipped with wards, units, and caregiving staff that meet specific standards. As of Dec. 2023, there are 1,391 long-term care hospitals nationwide (264,000 beds), with about 215,000 patients.
Among these patients, about 80,000 have high medical needs, and the government plans to designate 500 medical-focused long-term care hospitals (100,000 beds) by 2030, starting with 200 next year, to reduce nursing care costs for these 80,000 patients. If the out-of-pocket rate drops to 30%, nursing care costs, currently averaging 2 million to 2.67 million won per month, will fall to 600,000 to 800,000 won.
The government will establish an objective assessment and verification system to determine patients' medical needs and will regularly monitor patient conditions. It will also secure caregivers to provide quality nursing care services, including by using foreign workers in regions outside the greater Seoul area.
The ministry said that to ensure sustainable fiscal management, it will establish a fiscal and patient monitoring system within the National Health Insurance Service to track utilization.
The ministry plans to report on the 25th to the Health Insurance Policy Deliberation Committee (HIPDC), the top decision-making body for health insurance policy, a direction of implementation that reflects opinions gathered at the public hearing that day on selection criteria for medical-focused long-term care hospitals and measures to supply and manage caregiving staff. It will then form an expert advisory group to draw up detailed implementation plans and, after HIPDC deliberation, announce them in December.
Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong of the Ministry of Health and Welfare said, "The government will push to ensure that the policies to innovate long-term care hospitals and to cover nursing care costs are organically linked to patient-centered community integrated care," adding, "In connection with the medical and long-term care integrated care to be implemented nationwide in March next year, we will ensure that long-term care hospitals play an important role in supporting older adults' health and daily lives together with the community."