One way to stop bleeding in the gastrointestinal tract or from trauma is for the radiology department to use an interventional procedure to send embolic materials into the bleeding blood vessel to block it.
Embolic materials include gelfoam (sponge), glue (medical-grade cyanoacrylate), coils (wound wire), etc.
Among coils, a widely used product is Concerto from Medtronic, which can go in without getting caught even on thin catheters.
A company representative visited recently and mentioned that due to unit cost issues, the headquarters might not send products to Korea.
It seems that the unit cost was originally low, and with the exchange rate rising, selling doesn't leave adequate profit.
Of course the material cost differs depending on length, but our insurance rate is the same price regardless of length.
That's why larger coils were discontinued first, and now they're trying to pull back even small products.
Moreover, our country has a neighboring country that pays good prices, so they don't need to sell here and can just sell there instead.
Multiple medical societies and companies will try to persuade the National Health Insurance Service to raise prices, but it won't be easy.
The logic the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service can pull out is "treatment worked fine before this product came out."
Ugh..
Do they want to see us abandon a product that's easy to use, effective, and speeds up the procedure and take a long detour instead?
Most people don't know that the withdrawal of Gore caused children with congenital heart disease and vascular malformations to be unable to undergo surgery.
When those products disappear, it's the patients receiving procedures who suffer damage, but since they don't even know they're being harmed, patients or guardians can't even complain to the Ministry of Welfare or the insurance service.
Even if doctors protest, the Ministry of Welfare and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service don't even listen.
They say they're spending close to 200 billion won on covering baldness treatment drugs, but can't they stop that and send the budget to more important areas instead?
(I don't have a lot of hair either, but..)
A major obstetrics and gynecology clinic in Jeju is closing due to inadequate rates, yet the Ministry of Welfare is trying to push through such patronizing policies, which is infuriating.
I wish they would give material rates around the OECD average.
Our country isn't poor, so why do they keep cutting material rates and causing useful products to be withdrawn?
Today, one more piece of frustration toward the Ministry of Welfare has accumulated.
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Coils are divided into detachable coils and pushable coils; with detachable coils, the physician performing the procedure can decide whether to detach the coil from the wire or retrieve it again.
The cheaper pushable coil is done once deployed, and if the position doesn't look right, that coil must be removed and discarded.
Ugh...
