Estimated Incidence and Cost Projections of Cataract Surgery in the Republic of Korea

Sun Young Ryu; Jiwon Kim; Jung Hwa Hong; Eun Jee Chung

doi:10.3341/jkos.2019.60.9.829

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Ryu, Kim, Hong, and Chung: Estimated Incidence and Cost Projections of Cataract Surgery in the Republic of Korea

Original Article

Journal of the Korean Ophthalmological Society 2019; 60(9): 829-834.

Published online: 18 September 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3341/jkos.2019.60.9.829

Estimated Incidence and Cost Projections of Cataract Surgery in the Republic of Korea

Sun Young Ryu, MD¹, Jiwon Kim, MD¹, Jung Hwa Hong, MS², Eun Jee Chung, MD, PhD¹

¹Department of Ophthalmology, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea.

²Department of Policy Research Affairs, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, Goyang, Korea.

Address reprint requests to Eun Jee Chung, MD, PhD. Department of Ophthalmology, National Health Insurance Service Ilsan Hospital, #100 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang 10444, Korea. Tel: 82-31-900-0590, Fax: 82-31-900-0049, eunjee95@nhimc.or.kr

Received 27 March 2019 Revised 29 March 2019 Accepted 16 August 2019

The Korean Ophthalmological Society

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Purpose

We sought to predict the future incidence and health expenditures of cataract surgery in the Republic of Korea.

Methods

From 2011 to 2015, National Health Insurance claims data were used to estimate the incidence and prevalence changes of cataract surgery according to demographic characteristics (year, sex, residence, and age). Based on the above results and changes in future population distribution, we estimated the incidence of cataract surgery by 2030. Considering the cost of cataract surgery from 2011 to 2015, we also predicted future health expenditures for cataract surgery.

Results

A total of 2,236,107 eyes of 1,591,176 patients underwent cataract surgery from 2011 to 2015. The total number of operated eyes per year increased, from 427,729 to 492,700 (+15%), and the number of patients increased from 306,710 to 346,056 (+12%) from 2011 to 2015. The cost of cataract surgery reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) increased from 408,307,530,900 won ($360 million) to 449,334,367,080 won ($399 million) (+9%). The future prevalence of cataract surgery was predicted to reach 562,003 in 2030 from 346,056 in 2015. The cost of cataract surgery is expected to increase from 449 billion won ($399 million) in 2015 to 641 billion won ($570 million) in 2030.

Conclusions

Cataract surgery and medical expenses will increase due to social aging. Therefore, we need policies to secure medical resources and expand insurance indications.

Keywords: Cataract, Health expenditure, Prevalence

Figures and Tables

Figure 1

Number and health expenditure of cataract surgery from 2011 to 2015 in Korea. Total number of operated eyes per year increased from 427,729 to 492,700 (+15%) from 2011 to 2015. The cost of cataract surgery reimbursed by National Health Insurance Service increased from 408,307,530,900 won ($360 million) to 449,334,367,080 won ($399 million) (+9%). KRW = Korean Won.

Figure 2

Estimated number of cataract patients undergoing cataract surgery and related-health expenditure by 2030 in Korea. Future number of patients undergoing cataract surgery are predicted to reach 562,003 in 2030 from 346,056 in 2015 (+38%). The cost of cataract surgery is expected to increase from 449 billion won ($399 million) in 2015 to 641 billion won ($570 million) in 2030 (+30%). KRW = Korean Won.

Table 1

Incidence of cataract surgery from 2011 to 2015 in Korea

Values are presented as mean ± standard deviation or number.

Table 2

Cataract surgery-related health expenditure from 2011 to 2015

KRW = Korean Won.

Table 3

Estimated incidence and health expenditure of cataract surgery by 2030 in Korea

KRW = Korean Won.

^*Predicted values.

Notes

This work was supported by a National Health Insurance Ilsan Hospital grant (NHIMC 2018-20-016). This study used data from the NHIS-NCS 2002-2016, which was released by the KNHIS. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

^{Conflicts of Interest} The authors have no conflicts to disclose.

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