From May 20th, please bring your ID when visiting hospitals or clinics

The Ministry of Health and Welfare (Minister Cho Kyu-hong)  announced that a mandatory health insurance identity verification system will be implemented from  May 20th . Accordingly,  when  receiving treatment for which health insurance benefits are applied at a hospital or clinic, you must verify  your identity with an ID card, etc. in order to receive health insurance benefits .

  Currently,  many medical institutions provide  treatment by providing resident registration numbers without a separate identity verification process when applying for health insurance.  This has  resulted in cases of  abuse of  the system, such as people who  are not qualified for health insurance  and receive   health insurance benefits by stealing someone else’s name. It continues to occur . In order  to prevent such  abuse cases and   improve the fairness of the health insurance system, the National Health Insurance Act was revised   ( Act No. 19420 ) to  require medical institutions to verify their identity when  applying for health insurance , and it will be implemented in medical institutions nationwide from the 20th of this month.  It is going to be. 

   * (Status of detection and recovery) Over the past five years, the National Health Insurance Corporation has detected an average of 35,000 cases of theft per year and decided to recover 800 million won. However, this is only a case of obvious theft, so the actual theft is expected to be much higher. 

  Means of identity verification include identification cards such  as resident registration cards and alien registration cards, electronic signatures, and verification services from identity verification agencies . Additionally,  you  can conveniently verify your identity by presenting your mobile health insurance card (app) or QR code .

However, if  there are legitimate reasons such as minors  making it difficult to verify identity, identity verification may not be performed  . In this case, you can receive medical treatment by presenting your resident registration number, etc. as before.

 If  health insurance qualifications are used illegally, both the person who loaned the loan and the person who received the loan  may be subject to  imprisonment of up to 2 years or  a fine of up to 20 million won, and the amount used illegally will be refunded.  Medical institutions that do not verify their identity  will be subject to a fine of up to 1 million won .

  Detailed information about  the  health insurance identity verification system will be provided through the National Health Insurance Corporation website or call center (1577-1000)  .

  Lee Jung-gyu, Director of Health Insurance Policy Bureau , said , “ The health insurance identity verification system is intended to improve the fairness of the health insurance system by preventing free riding, such as stealing other people’s health insurance qualifications,  ” and added, “ For  the smooth implementation of the system, the public is requested to do so.” “Please bring  your ID when visiting a medical institution , and if you do not have one, please use the mobile health insurance card app.”

Editor Miso