ArticleThe Korean journal of internal medicine2020
Hourly wages of physicians within medical fees based on the Korean relative value unit system.
Article in The Korean journal of internal medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 4 papers.
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Who cites it
4 citing papers in PubMed.
- Allocative inefficiency in physician workforce distribution: specialty-level NHI-covered reimbursement analysis in South Korea's single-payer system.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- A multicenter micro-costing analysis of flexible cystoscopic procedures in Korea.Investigative and clinical urology · 2025Article
- Comparison of current relative value unit-based prices and utility between common surgical procedures, including orthopedic surgeries, in South Korea.Cost effectiveness and resource allocation : C/E · 2024Article
- Comparison of emergency department workloads before and during the COVID-19 pandemic as assessed using relative value units.Clinical and experimental emergency medicine · 2022Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND/
aimsIt is difficult to reach a social agreement on the appropriate level of compensation for professionals. This study was performed to examine the physician fee embedded in the relative value unit (RVU) system in comparison with the Korean hourly minimum wage.
methodsThe Health Insurance Service Price and the Korean Classification of Procedural Terminology were used to obtain the hourly wages of physicians for designated health care services. In addition, the physician fee schedule at the United States Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report on minimal wage were used. Health care service fees were selected based on laboratory, pathology, imaging, and procedure codes as well as examination fees. For calculation of physician labor costs per hour, physician workload × conversion factor was divided by the time involved. To calculate the proportion of physician labor fee in the total fee, the physician workload RVU for each service fee was divided by the total RVU.
resultsA total of 27 physician fee codes were selected. Compared to the Korean hourly minimum wage in 2015, the average physician wages were greater by 2.80- fold for primary care and by 3.05-fold for tertiary care. The mean proportion of physician labor cost in the total cost was 0.19, which was significantly lower than that of corresponding procedures in the United States RVU (mean, 0.48).
conclusionThe average Korean physician wages compared to the hourly minimum wage were disproportionately low compared to the USA and other reference OECD countries.
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