“A Minor Bump, but Three Months in the Hospital?” Easy Money for ‘Phony Patients’ Is Disappearing

[Financial News] Going forward, minor-injury patients who wish to receive treatment for more than eight weeks after a car accident must undergo an objective review by a medical specialist. Infants and pregnant women are exempt.
The Financial Supervisory Service announced on the 2nd a plan to overhaul compensation procedures for medical treatment under automobile insurance. The key change is a complete revision of the practice of routinely paying “future medical expenses” to minor-injury patients, replacing it with a system that covers only treatment costs actually incurred.
The overhaul focuses on tightening the criteria for long-term treatment for minor-injury patients classified as injury grades 12 to 14, including simple bruises and sprains. Starting on the 10th, anyone seeking treatment beyond eight weeks from the date of the accident must undergo a review of the medical necessity of the treatment by a medical specialist at the Korea Automobile Insurance Compensation Promotion Agency, an organization under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT). Patients must submit required documents, including a medical certificate and a copy of their medical records, to their insurer within seven weeks of the accident. The agency will notify them of the review results within seven days. Vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and infants, will be exempt from the long-term treatment review and may continue receiving treatment as before.
Those who disagree with the review results may file an objection with the Mutual Aid Dispute Mediation Subcommittee within seven days of receiving notification. The practice of paying future medical expenses under the name of “settlement money” will also change. Such expenses will be paid only to seriously injured patients in injury grades 1 to 11, and only when the costs are objectively deemed necessary. For minor-injury patients, lump-sum payments designated as future medical expenses will be discontinued, and only treatment costs actually incurred will be covered.
To prevent consumer harm from the changes, financial authorities plan to explain compensation procedures through notification messages when policies are purchased and immediately after an accident is reported. Two additional notifications will be sent during the third to fourth weeks and sixth to seventh weeks of treatment. The procedure for reviewing the need for long-term treatment for minor-injury patients will apply to car accidents occurring on or after the 10th. The revised criteria for paying future medical expenses will apply to contracts concluded on or after the 10th whose insurance coverage begins on or after the 25th of the following month.
According to the Financial Supervisory Service, the automobile insurance business’s results have deteriorated sharply, from a KRW 9.7 billion loss in 2024 to a KRW 708 billion loss in 2025 and a KRW 163.7 billion loss in the first five months of this year alone. The measures are being implemented to prevent excessive payouts to some patients from triggering a vicious cycle of premium increases for responsible policyholders and to establish a sustainable insurance foundation.




[email protected] Park Moon-soo Reporter