NHIS supports efforts to identify welfare blind spots using healthcare benefit information

[Financial News] The National Health Insurance Service is expanding a program that uses healthcare benefit information it holds to identify households in crisis in welfare blind spots at an early stage and connect them with the welfare services they need.
The NHIS said on the 28th that it provides healthcare benefit records to the government’s welfare blind spot identification system and its crisis response system for deaths of people living alone, among others, to identify households in crisis, children in crisis and people at risk of dying alone.
The NHIS provides the Seoul Metropolitan Government and South Chungcheong Province with the names and addresses of patients receiving inpatient care so they can identify workers in vulnerable employment situations who are eligible for assistance with living expenses during hospitalization. Local governments use the information to promote the support program.
Applications for the program are also trending upward. The number of applicants for Seoul’s hospitalization living-expense assistance rose 8.5% in 2024 and 8.7% in 2025. In South Chungcheong, the number of applicants in 2025 increased 22.6% from the previous year.
The NHIS plans to continue supporting the government and local governments in proactively identifying people facing welfare crises and to strengthen connections to the welfare services they need by using health and medical information. However, to protect personal information, it provides data to external organizations only after a review under the Personal Information Protection Act, and shares only the minimum information necessary.

[email protected] Jeong Sang-hee Reporter