Exploring the Healthcare Seeking Behavior of Medical Aid Beneficiaries Who Overutilize Healthcare Services: A Qualitative Descriptive Study

We explored the healthcare seeking behavior of Medical Aid (MA) beneficiaries who over-utilize healthcare services in South Korea. We employed a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews with fifteen community-dwelling MA beneficiaries—who were categorized as over-utilizing healthcare services—and conventional content analysis. Four categories emerged: having unmet healthcare needs, wandering in search of effective healthcare services, routinizing their use of healthcare services, and being concerned about benefit restrictions due to their healthcare overutilization. Overall, these categories indicate participants’ behaviors used to fill the gap between their high healthcare needs and restricted MA benefits. The findings provide a foundation for healthcare providers, policymakers, researchers, and MA beneficiaries to discuss how to better address beneficiaries’ healthcare needs while preventing healthcare overutilization patterns. Effective and innovative interventions that target MA beneficiaries and their case managers are necessary to improve beneficiaries’ quality of life.