Data Resource Profile: The National Health Information Database of the National Health Insurance Service in South Korea

Data resource basics: The National Health Information Database (NHID) is a public database on health care utilization, health screening, socio-demographic variables, and mortality for the whole population of South Korea, formed by the National Health Insurance Service. The population included in the data is over 50 million, and the participation rate in the health screening programs was 74.8% in 2014. The NHID covers data between 2002 and 2014. Those insured by NHI pay insurance contributions and receive medical services from their health care providers. The NHIS, as the single insurer, pays costs based on the billing records of health care providers (Figure 1). To govern and carry out these processes in the NHI, the NHIS built a data warehouse to collect the required information on insurance eligibility, insurance contributions, medical history, and medical institutions. In 2012, the NHIS formed the NHID using information from medical treatment and health screening records and eligibility data from an existing database system.