South Korea sentences man in his 70s to prison for falsely admitting to hospital after receiving 220 million won in insurance money

A woman in her 70s who was hospitalized for a long period despite having an illness that could have been treated as an outpatient in South Korea and received insurance payments worth hundreds of millions of won has been sentenced to prison.
On the 7th, Judge Jeong Soon-yeol of the Busan District Court Criminal 11 Exclusive sentenced defendant A, who was indicted on charges of fraud and violation of the Special Act on Prevention of Insurance Fraud.
According to the ruling, between May 2011 and April 2021, defendant A committed long-term medical treatment for an illness that could have been treated by outpatient treatment.
He is suspected of defrauding insurance companies of a total of 220 million won in insurance payments on 67 occasions by hospitalizing patients.
Defendant A paid 1 million won a month for a fixed-rate insurance policy that provided overlapping coverage in the event of hospitalization due to illness.
After signing up for so many insurance policies that he paid more than 10,000 insurance premiums, he committed the crime. Defendant A transferred between hospitals in Busan, Changwon, Haman, Changnyeong, Ulsan, Miryang, Gimhae, Daegu, and other areas where admission was easy and patient management was poor.
He was frequently hospitalized for joint, cervical, thoracic, and neuralgia. Including the cases for which he was not prosecuted for fraud, the charges were filed 107 times over a total of 1,857 days over the 10 years since 2011.
Judge Jung said, "The defendant was admitted to another hospital with the same symptoms the day after he was discharged, or admitted to another hospital with different symptoms the day after he was discharged, or just a few days after he was discharged.
"He was repeatedly admitted to similar local clinic-sized hospitals, convalescent hospitals, and oriental medicine hospitals without receiving treatment at an advanced medical institution, and he was given medical care.
"It is extremely unusual that the defendant was only receiving conservative treatment," he said. Defendant A said, "The statute of limitations for fraud is 10 years, and for crimes that have occurred over 10 years ago, based on the date of indictment in 2023,
Judge Chung said, "In the case of fraud, if a person commits multiple acts of deception to defraud money or valuables, the criminal intent is not a single one.
The court ruled that the statute of limitations had not yet expired, stating that "if the means of the crime are the same, only one comprehensive crime will be established." Furthermore, the court ruled that "the abuse of the insurance system, the damage to the social function of insurance, and moral hazard
"This not only encourages fraud but also shifts economic damage to honest insurance policyholders, and strict measures are necessary," he said. "Considering the total number of crimes, the duration, and the amount of money stolen, the defendant's guilt is severe.
” he said.