President Kim Yong-ik of the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) and Commissioner Jeong Eun-kyeong of Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) participate in a ceremony in which NHIS and KDCA signed an MOU on the building of health information big data on April 29. (Photos: NHIS)

The National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) has played a part in making the process of vaccinating people against the COVID-19 pandemic as smooth as possible.

The government targets giving the initial vaccine shot against the pandemic to 13 million people in the first half of this year. The vaccination process, which has so far inoculated 6 million people, is made possible thanks to health insurance big data possessed by NHIS.

NHIS has offered full support to the government’s inoculation program by confirming those who are required to have shots and preferred vaccination candidates using its health insurance database, paying vaccination costs and building a database of vaccinated people and their medical care.

NHIS determined the scope of essential vaccination candidates, such as medical care manpower and nursing institution inmates, and sent 14,493,737 related data sets to the government.

The government finalized vaccination candidates after health centers checked the data sets from NHIS, and those who signed up for the vaccination program were confirmed.

In April, NHIS signed an MOU on the building of health information big data with Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA).

Connectivity between health insurance big data and the national vaccine inoculation system has enabled research on the cost effectiveness of vaccines and support for the government’s decision-making process.

 
NHIS’ health insurance has shouldered 70 percent of the costs associated with the inoculation program for the AstraZeneca and Jansen vaccines at 10,000 medical institutions across the nation.

The related costs are estimated at 511.3 billion won, 357.9 billion won of which is burdened by NHIS’ health insurance.

NHIS Strikes MOU on Cooperation in Health Insurance with BPJS-Kesehatan

NHIS signed an MOU on international cooperation in health insurance with Indonesian BPJS-Kesehatan.

 
Under the agreement, the two institutions agreed to cooperate for the mutual development in such areas such as strategic purchases, premium collection, dispersing of risks, and fiscal danger management and cooperation in data-oriented health and medical systems.

Under an MOU, concluded between NHIS and BPJS-Kesehatan in 2017, both sides have implemented cooperation projects such as the publicizing of a policy report on the reforming of the Indonesia health insurance system and an educational program targeting officials with BPJS-Kesehatan.

The latest deal calls for fleshing out cooperative areas of both sides and ramping up cooperative ties through the implementation of a variety of collaboration projects.

NHIS hosted an on-line workshop to transfer Korea’s experiences on health insurance to the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) on May 28.

NHIS Shares Korea’s Health Insurance Experience with Ukraine

NHIS held an on-line workshop to share Korea’s experience on health insurance to the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) on May 28.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance (MOEF) and the World Bank agreed on Korea- World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF), an initiative to strengthen ties between the two, on March 31.

The workshop on cancer is a first theme under projects designed to improve Ukraine’s medical system using the KWPF.