Lee Eun Young, Won Hyung-Sun, Yang Miyoung, Kim Hyungtae, Kim Yeon-Dong
Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, Gwangju, Korea.
Department of Anatomy, Wonkwang University School of Medicine, Iksan, Korea.
Korean J Pain. 2024 Jan 1;37(1):51-58. doi: 10.3344/kjp.23254. Epub 2023 Dec 11.
The rise in national health care costs has emerged as a global problem given the ever-aging population and rapid development of medical technology. The utilization of interventional pain management has, similarly, shown a continued rise worldwide. This study evaluates the differences in the medical costs in the field of interventional pain treatment (IPT) between two countries: Korea and Japan.
Korean medical insurance costs for 2019 related to pain management focused on IPT were compared to those of Japan. Purchasing power parity (PPP) was used to adjust the exchange rate differences and to compare prices in consideration of the respective societies' economic power.
The cost of trigger point injections in Japan was 1.06 times higher than that of Korea, whereas the perineural and intraarticular injection prices were lower in Japan. The cost of epidural blocks was higher in Japan compared to Korea in both cervical/thoracic and lumbar regions. As for blocks of peripheral branches of spinal nerves, the cost of scapular nerve blocks in Japan was lower than that in Korea, given a PPP ratio 0.09. For nerve blocks in which fluoroscopy guidance is mandatory, the costs of epidurography in Japan were greater than those in Korea, given a PPP ratio 1.04.
This is the first comparative study focusing on the medical costs related to IPT between Korea and Japan, which reveals that the costs differed along various categories. Further comparisons reflecting more diverse countries and socio-economic aspects will be required.
鉴于人口老龄化和医疗技术的快速发展，国家医疗保健成本的上升已成为一个全球性问题。同样，介入性疼痛管理的使用率在全球范围内持续上升。本研究评估了韩国和日本这两个国家在介入性疼痛治疗（IPT）领域的医疗成本差异。
将2019年韩国与聚焦于IPT的疼痛管理相关的医疗保险费用与日本的进行比较。使用购买力平价（PPP）来调整汇率差异，并考虑各自社会的经济实力来比较价格。
日本触发点注射的成本比韩国高1.06倍，而日本的神经周围和关节内注射价格较低。在颈椎/胸椎和腰椎区域，日本硬膜外阻滞的成本均高于韩国。至于脊神经周围分支阻滞，考虑到PPP比率为0.09，日本肩胛上神经阻滞的成本低于韩国。对于必须使用荧光透视引导的神经阻滞，考虑到PPP比率为1.04，日本硬膜造影的成本高于韩国。
这是第一项聚焦于韩国和日本IPT相关医疗成本的比较研究，该研究表明不同类别的成本存在差异。需要进行更多反映更多样化国家和社会经济方面的比较。
