Korea University · Health Professions
Professor Sungchul Park's research lab focuses on health services research with a primary emphasis on Medicare beneficiaries, particularly in the context of health insurance choice, access to care, and health disparities. The lab investigates the impact of Medicare Advantage (MA) versus fee-for-service (Fee-for-service) plans on health outcomes, care utilization, and health equity, with a special focus on vulnerable populations such as those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) and racial and ethnic minorities. Research also explores health insurance literacy, low-value care, and the effects of public health crises—like the COVID-19 pandemic—on care access and utilization. The lab’s work informs policy initiatives aimed at improving health system efficiency, equity, and patient-centered decision making.
Figures are computed from collected data and may differ slightly.
Compared with TM beneficiaries, MA beneficiaries had lower health care utilization without compromising care satisfaction and health status. This difference was more pronounced among beneficiaries with ADRD. These findings suggest that MA plans may be delivering health care more efficiently than TM, especially for beneficiaries with ADRD.
This cross-sectional study found that use of low-value care was similarly prevalent in MA and TM, suggesting that MA enrollment was not associated with decreased provision of low-value care compared with TM.
The results of this cross-sectional survey study suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic may exacerbate existing barriers to care and lead Medicare beneficiaries to delay needed care. Policy makers must continue to identify effective means of meeting the forgone care backlog and maintaining continuity of care, especially for those with mental health problems.
Differences in enrollment in high-rated MA plans by race and ethnicity may be explained by limited access and not by individual characteristics or enrollment decisions.
Results of this study suggest that higher health insurance literacy-particularly, annual review and comparison of coverage choices-is associated with higher MA enrollment and choice of a particular MA plan. Policy makers should develop programs to encourage frequent review and comparison of coverage options for informed decision making.
Despite coverage gains among Asian American subgroups, especially Koreans, disparities in access and utilization persisted across all Asian American subgroups.
When functional tests are used for manufacturing testing, their quality for detecting manufacturing defects needs to be evaluated. Evaluating functional tests using a traditional gate-level fault simulation environment has several disadvantages. To alleviate them, we describe a functional level coverage metric for estimating gate-level fault coverage that has a high degree of correlation to gate-level coverage. We borrow concepts from simulation-based design verification by defining fault detect
Utilization of cost-effective essential preventive health services increased after the implementation of the Affordable Care Act's (ACA) provision that non-grandfathered private insurers provide cost-effective preventive services without cost sharing in 2010. Little is known, however, whether this change is also observed among Asians in the US. We examined patterns of preventive services utilization among Asian subgroups relative to non-Latino whites (whites) after the implementation of the ACA'
Medicare beneficiaries in rural areas may face challenges to gaining access to care, particularly if enrolled in Medicare Advantage (MA) plans with limited benefits and restrictive provider networks. These barriers to care may, in turn, increase switching to traditional fee-for-service Medicare among rural MA enrollees. Using 2010-16 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey data, we found that switching from traditional Medicare to Medicare Advantage was uncommon among enrollees, both rural (1.7 perc
MA enrollment was associated with lower health care utilization without compromising care satisfaction and health status, particularly for beneficiaries with diabetes. MA may have a more efficient care delivery system for beneficiaries with diabetes.
Risk adjustment is instituted to counter risk selection by accurately equating payments with expected expenditures. Traditional risk-adjustment methods are designed to estimate accurate payments at the group level. However, this generates residual risks at the individual level, especially for high-expenditure individuals, thereby inducing health plans to avoid those with high residual risks. To identify an optimal risk-adjustment method, we perform a comprehensive comparison of prediction accura
Open papers in the app to read, cite, and organize with AI.
