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Many of the large hospitals do not directly purchase medical equipment or items necessary for surgery, but purchase them through indirect suppliers, or indirect suppliers for short.

However, as a result of a government investigation, it was revealed that one out of three such companies is run by the hospital director's family or relatives.

In the process, companies sometimes take profit, which leads to the burden of patients.



Reporter Han Seong-hee reported exclusively.



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Thousands of medical devices, such as artificial joints and surgical instruments, are bought by manufacturers and sold to hospitals.



In some cases, vendors are caught between manufacturers and intermediaries.



When the Ministry of Health and Welfare first conducted a fact-finding survey, it was found that 36% of 44 intermittent payment companies nationwide, and 1 in 3, were operated by a specially related person, such as a family member or relative of the hospital director.



Let's see what's wrong with this.



Company A, the largest medical device intermediary company in Korea, has a margin of 1.5%, while Company B, a company that was established by the head of a large hospital in the metropolitan area in the name of himself and his family, has a margin of 23%.



If the cost of the knee artificial joint is 5 million won, the hospital should buy it at 5075,000 won from company A and 6.15 million won from company B.



It's the same artificial joint, but it's not a loss if you buy a hospital more than 1 million won.



This is because the patient is billed for the amount they bought.



Hospitals cannot make profits on medical devices under the Medical Act.



However, if you establish a special relationship with an interim payment company, you can make a profit.



Some hospital heads force medical device vendors to deliver to their internaphtha.



[Employee of medical device sales company company A: (manufacturing and selling companies) have no choice but to go through internaphtha to contract with a hospital, but hospitals almost designate internaphtha.]



The size of the medical device market in Korea is 10 as of 2020. Jo Won.



It is estimated that the amount of money collected by the hospital director and a special related person is not a small amount.



[Young-in Koh / Member of National Assembly Health and Welfare: If the (interim payment company) increases the margin, the medical device will become expensive.

This is reflected in the medical fee to the Health Insurance Corporation.

It puts pressure on the health insurance finances, and thus the burden is passed on to the public.] A



reasonable margin rate should be discussed, but institutional supplementation is needed for intermittent payment companies.



(Video coverage: Jeon Gyeong-bae·Kim Gyun-jong, video editing: Lee Jung-taek, CG: Ryu Sang-soo)