Patients must carry IDs at hospitals and clinics from Monday in Korea

Starting on Monday, patients will need to bring their identification cards to medical institutions as part of the mandatory health insurance identification system in Korea. 

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday that it would implement the mandatory health insurance identification system.

Accordingly, when receiving medical treatment covered by health insurance at hospitals and clinics, patients must verify their identity with an ID card to receive health insurance benefits.

The Health and Welfare Ministry noted that many nursing institutions now provide medical treatment by requiring only resident registration numbers without a separate identification procedure when applying for health insurance. This results in the continuous occurrence of abuse of the system, as some people ineligible for health insurance steal other people's names and receive health insurance benefits.

Possible means of identification include identification cards, such as resident and alien registration cards, electronic signatures, and verification services from identity verification organizations. Patients can also verify their identity by presenting their mobile health insurance card or QR code.

However, if there are legitimate reasons for making it difficult to verify their identity, including minors, they may not be required to do so, and in this case, they can receive medical treatment by presenting their resident registration number as before.

If health insurance status is fraudulently used, the lender and the borrower can be punished by imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won ($14,760), and benefits from the fraudulent use will be returned. A nursing organization that fails to verify the identity will be fined up to 1 million won.

"The health insurance identification system aims to improve the fairness of the health insurance system by preventing free-riding by, for instance, stealing other people's health insurance qualifications," said Lee Chung-kyu, director-general of the Health Insurance Policy Bureau at the ministry. "To ensure the smooth implementation of the system, we ask people to bring their identification cards when visiting medical institutions and use the mobile health insurance card app if they do not carry them."