Insurance claims for chuna therapy, a Korean medicine manual treatment, rose 60% over four years, with combined health and auto insurance billings topping 680 billion won ($470 million) last year. In chuna therapy, practitioners of Korean medicine use their hands or other parts of the body to push and pull joints, muscles and the spine for realignment.
Claims for chuna therapy last year totaled 684.9 billion won, comprising 215.5 billion won under the national health insurance program and 469.4 billion won under auto insurance, according to data from the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service obtained by Rep. Han Ji-ah of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee. The figure, released on the 16th, marks a 60.0% increase from 428.1 billion won in 2021.
Health insurance claims for the treatment climbed 57.6% to 215.5 billion won in 2025 from 136.8 billion won in 2021, while auto insurance claims rose 61.1% to 469.4 billion won from 291.3 billion won over the same period.
The number of treatment sessions also increased, with health insurance cases up 35.4% to 6.57 million from about 4.86 million, and auto insurance cases up 38.8% to 16.96 million from about 12.22 million.
In one case, a Korean medicine clinic administered chuna therapy to the same patient 188 times in 2024. The charges were billed to an auto insurance company.
Given the sharp rise in billings and the continued increase in repeat treatments, the lawmaker's office said there is a need to verify how effectively existing review standards are curbing excessive treatment.
The office noted that the government has introduced a managed-benefit scheme to prevent excessive use of manual therapy in conventional medicine, and argued that effective oversight should likewise apply to chuna therapy.
"Reasonable differences based on the medical characteristics of each treatment should be acknowledged, but there must be no exceptions when it comes to managing excessive treatment," Han said. "The system needs to be improved by examining the status of repeat insurance claims for chuna therapy and how they are adjusted during review."