After the government expanded telemedicine in February to address the mass resignation of trainee doctors at teaching hospitals, the number of remote medical treatments increased dramatically, according to a report.

The increase was most visible at hospital-level medical institutions, including tertiary hospitals and general hospitals, it added.

On Feb. 23, the government expanded telemedicine to first-time patients and hospital-level and above medical institutions, which had been banned in principle, allowing them to provide and receive virtual care services.

According to data Rep. Kim Yoon of the Democratic Party of Korea received from the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), the average number of contactless treatments per month from November last year to February this year was 129,192. Between March and May, however, it increased to 174,847, up 35.3 percent.

Notably, telehealth at tertiary hospitals and general hospitals increased significantly.

In general hospitals, remote care cases increased 113 times, from an average of only 10 per month from last November to this February to an average of more than 1,128 per month from March to May. The number of remote service cases at tertiary hospitals also increased fivefold, from an average of 63 to 304 per month.

Despite the increase in contactless treatments, the number of such care not followed by medicine prescriptions or prescriptions for which health insurance claims have not been made by pharmacies continued to increase.

According to the NHIS, the number of medicines not prescribed after non-face-to-face treatments jumped 34.0 percent from 28,082 last November to 37,630 this May, while the number of cases where pharmacies did not charge health insurance fees soared from 1,066 to 8,195.

“The number of unissued prescriptions and uncharged health insurance fees after non-face-to-face treatments is estimated to be due in part to the prescription of non-reimbursed medicines,” Rep. Kim said, emphasizing the need to strengthen monitoring of non-reimbursed telemedicine.

“Although regulations have been relaxed to prevent gaps in medical care resulting from conflicts between the government and doctors, it is important to strengthen the monitoring of intermediary platforms. This is necessary to ensure that non-contact treatments are used appropriately and continue to meet the initial goal of expanding patients' access to medical care,” Kim said.