Hospital Negligent in COVID-19 Patient Care... Court: "Full Recovery of Medical Fees Justified"

Received 9.07 million won without checking patients twice a day
Hospital: "No obligation on the first and last days of treatment"
Court: "Applies throughout... Insufficient proof of exceptions"

A court has ruled that it was justified to recover in full the patient management fees paid to a hospital that failed to check the health of COVID-19 patients receiving home treatment twice a day.

According to legal circles on Oct. 18, the Seoul Administrative Court's 5th Administrative Division, presided over by Judge Lee Jeongwon, ruled against A, who operates a hospital in Nowon-gu, Seoul, in a lawsuit seeking to overturn a recovery order issued by the National Health Insurance Service. The court said, "The order to recover the full amount of improperly received medical care benefits is entirely justified."

Seoul Administrative Court. The Asia Business Daily DB

Previously, the hospital operated by A had been designated a medical institution for managing COVID-19 home treatment from February to April 2022 and was tasked with checking the health of patients who had tested positive. At the time, health authorities required medical institutions to check home-treated patients' body temperatures and oxygen saturation levels twice a day, and to provide non-face-to-face consultations or emergency care if symptoms emerged. Medical institutions were paid for these patient management activities.

However, the National Health Insurance Service determined that A's hospital had claimed and received 9,075,340 won in patient management fees without meeting the requirement to check patients' health twice a day. In May 2025, it notified the hospital that it would recover the full amount. A filed a lawsuit to challenge the order.

At trial, A argued, "The health authorities' guidelines divide patient management into the stages of starting, conducting and ending treatment, so the obligation to conduct checks twice a day applies only while treatment is ongoing." A also said, "It is excessive to recover the full amount of medical fees without taking into account the circumstances in which we cared for patients under difficult conditions during the COVID-19 outbreak."

The court, however, found that the obligation to check patients' health twice a day also applied on the first and last days of home treatment. Since continuously monitoring patients' health is fundamental to home treatment, the court determined that the obligation was not waived on the first or last day of treatment. The court said, "The guidelines set out tasks for the start and end of treatment separately to add tasks necessary to fulfill the existing obligations."

The court also found that the medical records submitted by A alone were insufficient to establish that there had been unavoidable circumstances preventing the hospital from checking patients' health twice a day. It added, "Exceptions may be recognized when patients are assigned late or home treatment ends in the morning, but objective evidence is needed to support such claims."

The court also found the order to recover the full amount of medical fees justified. It said, "Unlike a penalty, the recovery of improperly paid medical fees is intended to reclaim the amount actually paid." It added, "The full amount of improperly received benefits should, in principle, be recovered," and ruled that there was no violation of the principle of proportionality or unlawful abuse or overreach of discretionary power.

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