의료인에 대한 면허자격정지처분의 요건과 절차－ 부당한 경제적 이익 등의 취득금지를 중심으로 －

Since providing rebates (kickbacks) for medical products have been identified as a reason for the financial problems of the national health insurance system, various tax, criminal and administrative measures have been imposed to regulate rebate providers. But as these measures have proved to be ineffective, measures to regulate the receiving end of rebates have been introduced (the so-called “the reciprocal punishment in rebate cases”) in the form of penalizing medical service providers or suspending their medical licenses. The legislative intent of such measures is acceptable to some degree. But regulating the licenses of professionals (like medical service providers) carry more serious implications as it may overstep the intended effects and destroy the authority and social reputation of the accused within the professional community. Thus, license suspension of medical service providers should be executed with careful prudence. Legally speaking, it would be hard to find reciprocal punishment in rebate cases (according to laws related to the medical industry) unconstitutional, and the Constitutional Court of Korea has ruled so. But excessive expansion of the concept overriding the principles of strict interpretation should be approached with caution. Procedurally, one could consider having the Korean Medical Association set up a self-regulatory system by which the medical licenses of its members could be revoked or suspended to secure the effectiveness and trust of such measures. At the least, there is a need to revise medical laws so that hearing rights will be realistically guaranteed when the suspension or revocation of a license is involved. Along the same lines, measures to improve the effectiveness and trust of such regulation through the sharing of expert knowledge in hearing procedures related to the discipline of medical service providers should be seriously considered.