Traffic-injury patients seeking more than eight weeks of treatment will face review

People with minor injuries from traffic accidents will need to pass a separate medical review if they want treatment to continue beyond eight weeks. The Financial Supervisory Service announced the change as part of revisions to South Korea’s standard automobile-insurance terms.

The new provisions will be phased in from the 10th. Until now, patients generally submitted a medical certificate and faced no additional review before treatment ended. Under the revised terms, a medical professional from the Korea Automobile Damage Compensation Promotion Authority must assess whether treatment remains necessary after eight weeks.

Patients can challenge a decision rejecting continued treatment. Minor injuries generally include simple bruises and sprains. Infants and pregnant women are excluded from the measure.

The revisions also target future-treatment payments, which insurers have often provided to settle claims quickly despite having no explicit basis in the policy terms. Critics said these payments tended to be calculated generously, contributing to excessive insurance payouts and ultimately shifting costs to policyholders through higher premiums.

For minor-injury patients, insurers will no longer pay future-treatment allowances and will cover only costs that actually occur. For seriously injured patients, the revised terms specify that future-treatment costs may be paid when they are objectively recognized as necessary for treatment.