[Exclusive] "A Dead Person Getting Drug Prescriptions?"... Gaps in Preemptive Blocking and Follow-Up Tracking

150 prescriptions for narcotics under deceased individuals' names in 3.5 years
Death records updated monthly... prescriptions cannot be blocked
28 identity theft cases referred for investigation... penalties not tracked

#. Person A obtained a proxy prescription for 20 tablets of psychotropic drugs, including zolpidem and clonazepam, by falsely presenting their deceased spouse as a "patient with limited mobility." A claimed that the spouse could not come to the hospital in person. Only after the medication had been prescribed was A identified as a suspect in the alleged identity theft of a deceased person and referred to the police for investigation.

#. Person B, who pretended that their deceased child was still alive, obtained proxy prescriptions for five types of narcotics for medical use, including hypnotic sedatives and anti-anxiety drugs. The health authorities later discovered signs of identity theft during an on-site inspection of the medical institution and the case was referred for police investigation.

A customer waits to receive medication in an area lined with pharmacies near Asan Medical Center in Songpa-gu, Seoul, in May 2024. Photo by Kang Jinhyung.

Cases of people obtaining prescriptions for narcotics for medical use under the names of deceased individuals continue unabated. The main reasons appear to be that deceased individuals' names are not immediately flagged at the prescription stage and that outcomes in suspected identity-theft cases are not managed through an integrated system. Calls are growing for the management system to be overhauled.

According to data submitted by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to Park Jiwon of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, prescriptions for narcotics for medical use recorded after an individual's resident registration was canceled due to death totaled 57 in 2023, 32 in 2024 and 27 last year. This year, the total reached 34 in the first half alone, exceeding the full-year figure for last year. During this period, more than 3,700 units of narcotics for medical use were prescribed.

The prescription records included everything from potent narcotic painkillers to sleeping pills and appetite suppressants. Narcotic painkillers accounted for 50 prescriptions. Non-injectable fentanyl was the most common, with 27 prescriptions, followed by 13 for oxycodone, eight for morphine and two for pethidine. There were 38 prescriptions for sleeping pills such as zolpidem and 12 for appetite suppressants such as phentermine and phendimetrazine.

Limits in information sharing and management systems have made it difficult to flag prescriptions for narcotics under the names of deceased individuals in advance. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety receives information on deaths and resident registration cancellations through the Ministry of the Interior and Safety's resident registration database, but the information is updated only once a month. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Narcotics Information Management System is structured to receive reports on prescriptions, dispensing and administration from medical institutions and pharmacies after the fact. This means the system cannot issue real-time alerts or block a prescription, even when it is issued under the name of a deceased person. As a result, irregularities can only be checked against death records after a prescription has been issued.

The problem is that similar illegal prescriptions for narcotics continue to recur amid gaps in oversight after cases of identity theft involving deceased individuals are detected. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety confirmed violations involving the use of deceased individuals' identities and referred 28 cases for investigation: 12 in 2023, eight in 2024, five last year and three in the first half of this year. However, the ministry said, "We do not centrally manage the status of investigations and criminal or administrative penalties handled separately by the police, prosecution, courts and local governments." The ministry detects violations and refers them to investigative authorities, but does not track how cases are subsequently handled, including the outcomes of penalties or administrative measures.

Calls are growing for death records to be linked to the actual prescription and dispensing process so they can be checked in real time, and for patient identity verification procedures to be strengthened, to prevent repeated prescriptions for narcotics under the names of deceased individuals. Since the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety's Narcotics Information Management System currently only checks records after prescriptions have been issued, a system is needed to allow medical institutions and pharmacies to verify in advance whether a deceased person's identity is being used. Coordinating oversight among relevant agencies so that outcomes of penalties and administrative measures are tracked after cases are referred for investigation is also seen as an area for improvement.

Park said, "The fundamental reasons that prescriptions for narcotics continue to be recorded under the names of deceased individuals are the slow information-sharing process, which takes place only once a month, and the lack of a system to block prescriptions in real time. We must immediately establish a comprehensive management system that links death records to the actual prescription and dispensing process in real time to prevent misuse at the source, and rigorously tracks the outcomes of penalties and administrative measures after cases are referred for investigation."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.