「연명의료결정법」 시행에 따른 연명의료결정 수가 시범사업 운영 현황

Abstract

After implementing the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decisions Act, the government conducted a pilot project to strengthen people’s self-determination rights and to prepare compensation plans for medical institutions. The medical-fee pilot project was aimed at helping patients to understand the system and treatment process and to support maximizing respect for the patients’ right to self-determination of their own death. However, the objective data on the operation status of the number of life-sustaining medical treatment decisions in medical institutions remain insufficient. Therefore, this study’s purpose is to analyze the status of medical invoices, the frequency of disease, and patient characteristics by medical expense claims based on medical fees for data on decision making on life-sustaining treatments from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service. According to the results of the analysis, the number and amount of claims for medical planning fees for life-sustenance were the highest among the list of medical care costs, and the number of claims for bronchial and lung tumors and malignant neoplasms was the highest among all medical fees for decision making on life-sustaining treatments. In addition, the rate of claims was high among all cases involving men, those on high income, and the non-disabled, whereas among people with disabilities, the claim rate was higher than that of people with mental disorders. These results can be used as a basis for policy decisions to transition to this project. Finally, they can respect the patient’s right to self-determination and provide a framework to correctly establish decision making for life-sustaining treatment.