The government has announced a plan to use non-face-to-face medical treatment as a countermeasure to the collective action of the medical community, but related companies said they have never heard about it.

At the “Ministerial Meeting on Response to Collective Action” on Monday, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said it is “important to minimize public inconvenience due to medical gaps” and the government "plans to allow non-face-to-face medical treatment across-the-board during the collective action period."

Later in the day, Second Vice Minister of Health and Welfare Park Min-soo also hinted at the possibility of expanding the scope of non-face-to-face medical treatment, saying that the government could make the most of telemedicine to deal with physicians’ collective action.

Already, stock investors focus on telemedicine companies as the confrontation between the government and the medical community intensifies over a plan to expand the medical school enrollment quota. Investors believe telemedicine platforms will benefit from collective action by the medical community, leading to a surge in the stock prices of some virtual care platforms and EMR (electronic medical record) solution companies.

CareLabs, which operates GoodDoc, a platform for scheduling doctor's appointments and virtual visits, has been hitting new highs. CareLabs' stock price rose 29.93 percent (1,320 won) last Friday from the previous day's close and then rose an additional 29.84 percent (1,710 won) on Monday to close at 7,440 won ($5.5).

UBcare, the largest shareholder of the hospital reservation platform “DdokDoc” also gained 18.87 percent to 7,370 won on Monday, following a 23.16 percent increase last Friday, but lost ground later in the day and closed at 6,570 won, up 5.97 percent, or 370 won, from the previous day's close.

BBros, an affiliate of GC, ended its non-face-to-face medical service last year and only operates a hospital appointment service. "There are no plans to resume the non-face-to-face medical service," the company said.

BIT Computer, an EMR solution company that launched its non-face-to-face medical platform “Baro Doctor” in September last year, also rose 14.01 percent (1,030 won) from the previous day's closing price on Friday but was flat on Monday, up 0.84 percent (70 won) to 8,450 won.

Apart from these stock price movements, non-face-to-face medical platform companies are cautious in responding to the government's announcement. When asked if they had any prior consultations or discussions regarding the government's plan to utilize contactless medical treatment, a contactless medical treatment platform representative said, "None at all."

"Currently, there are no specific guidelines and no guidance on when and how to implement the new policy," said an official at a telemedicine platform provider. "The Ministry of Health and Welfare said it would announce the guidelines later so that we will respond accordingly. For now, we are waiting."

An official at another company also said, "We are trying to understand the situation through media reports. If the government gives us guidelines on what to do in the future, we will adapt to it, but we are not making any changes (to the system) right now."

The Korea Telemedicine Industry Council (KTIC), an association of telemedicine firms, was coy about the government's plans to use telemedicine.

"We don't have a position on the government's policy direction, as the situation is changing every moment," a KDIC official told Korea Biomedical Review over the phone. “We are keeping a close eye on the situation because there may be a situation where the system needs to be reorganized at the platform level. If there is a need for platform-level action, we will do our best to respond."