NHIS Successfully Completes Cooperation Project on Health Care System with NHSU

NHIS holds the third online workshop to transfer Korea's experience in operating the health insurance system to Ukraine for NHSU on July 9. (Photos: NHIS)

National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) announced on July 9 that it successfully wrapped up a cooperation project with the National Health Service of Ukraine (NHSU) by holding the third online workshop to transfer Korea's experience in operating the health insurance system to Ukraine.

This third workshop was the last workshop of the Ukrainian Health and Medical System Improvement Project using the Korea-World Bank Partnership Facility (KWPF) after a contract was signed between NHIS and the World Bank in March.

Under the theme of “health care and medical service quality management and supplier management,” presentations were made and discussions were held with the attendance of more than 90 people including officials from Ukraine’s Health Ministry, NHSU, and the World Bank.

Ukraine is a country that operates the health care system through the NHS System. The NHS System uses tax as financial resources for Ukraine’s national health insurance. The country computerized some data such as patient medical records in 2018 and started its national health insurance in 2020.

This cooperative project which will end at the end of July will zero in on three areas in which Ukraine is interested — cancer management, e-data governance and big data and health care quality management, and supplier management — and provide policy advisory reports.

In-depth discussions at workshops and knowledge transfers through policy advisory reports will play a role in supporting Ukraine’s health care system.

The international development cooperation project between NHIS and the World Bank has led to the spread of the Korean health insurance system’s excellence to Ukraine, one of the Korean government's new northern policy target countries and the signing of an MOU and laying the foundation for joint projects that can meet Ukraine’s demand.

During the cooperative project, the Ukrainian side showed a big interest in the Korean health service such as a Ukrainian doctors association proposing specific follow-up projects.

“We are grateful to NHIS of Korea for three workshops to support the Ukrainian health system,” said a high-ranking official of the NHSU. “We are looking forward to Korea's transfer of its experience to the Ukrainian health care system.”

“Since Ukraine has the world’s best space technology and IT technology, we believe that if we use Korea’s experience in running a health insurance system and introduce a big data system, we will be able to set up a medical service system for Ukraine soon,” said Kang Sang-baek, head of the Global Cooperation Office at NHIS.

Employees of NHIS pose for a photo shoot after the online workshop. (Photos: NHIS)

In the meantime, NHIS selected a data-based “K-health insurance operation system” as an item for next-generation international development cooperation projects and took the first step in spreading it to the world.

NHIS held a meeting to report on the launch of the ASEAN Financial Risk Management Support Consulting to support ASEAN member countries’ financial risk management on June 23.

This consulting, the first project to spread the Korean health insurance operation system all over the world, will be conducted for ASEAN member countries for a total of three years from 2021.

This project will be fully funded by the Korean government as the Korean government recognizes it as an international project between the Korean government and governments of other countries.

The main purpose of this consulting is to contribute to securing the financial stability of health insurance in ASEAN member countries by revising and supplementing NHIS’ financial analysis system to meet their situations.

In the first year, NHIS will analyze healthcare system statuses of five ASEAN member countries and build a future model using customized financial risk management and big data and conduct a feasibility study on financial risk management and data governance projects for them.

In the second year of next year, NHIS will conduct a basic survey of the two ASEAN member countries in order to establish a prototype, draw up a system integration implementation plan and suggest the detailed design of the system, and present a prototype solution.

In the third and final year, NHIS will carry out a pilot project to establish a financial risk management system in one of the ASEAN member countries and provide system operation support and technical support to the nation.