Official Resources

The Korean government's own rules, registers and channels, relayed with a link to every document so you can check each one yourself.

What Korean law says about brokers, referral fees and clinic ads
South Korea's Medical Service Act contains a general prohibition: no one may introduce, refer or solicit a patient to a medical institution or medical personnel for profit. One of the Act's limited exceptions covers attracting foreign patients who are not in Korean national health insurance, and that activity is regulated by its own statute, which is why registered agencies exist at all. The practical consequence for a patient is that an unregistered intermediary taking a cut of your treatment fee is not operating in a grey area.
Updated 2026-11-02
How to check whether a device or injectable is approved in South Korea
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety approves medical devices and drugs for use in South Korea and publishes what it has approved. Devices are searchable through the ministry's device information portal and drugs through its drug safety portal. Approval tells you a product is licensed and for what — it does not tell you the treatment is right for you, or that the clinic is using the product the way it was approved for.
Updated 2026-11-02
What a Korean clinic must post about its prices — and cannot exceed
Yes. Aesthetic treatment is non-covered care in South Korea, and the Medical Service Act requires a medical institution to notify its non-covered charges so that patients can easily understand them — and forbids it from collecting more than the amount it has notified or posted. Institutions must also report those prices to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, which surveys and publishes them through the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service.
Updated 2026-11-02
Is your Korean clinic registered to treat foreign patients?
A clinic in South Korea may not seek out and treat foreign patients as a business unless it is registered as a foreign patient attraction institution, and agencies that recruit patients must register separately. Clinics register with their provincial or metropolitan government under a scheme overseen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, and registered institutions are required to carry medical malpractice liability insurance. The register is published, and Medical Korea's own advice to patients is to ask the clinic to show its registration certificate.
Updated 2026-11-02
K-ETA in 2026: who is exempt, and who still needs one
For most of the region, no. A temporary exemption running to 31 December 2026 covers about two dozen countries and regions, including Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand, so travellers from those places can board without applying. Thailand and Malaysia are the ones people get wrong: both enter South Korea visa-free, neither is on the exemption list, so nationals of both still need K-ETA approval before departure. If your nationality needs a visa in the first place, K-ETA is not part of your route at all.
Updated 2026-10-19
KAHF accreditation: the tier above registration in South Korea
KAHF is South Korea's accreditation programme for institutions serving foreign patients, and it sits above the basic registration every such clinic must hold. A hospital-level institution must already carry KOIHA healthcare accreditation before it can be assessed, and every applicant is measured against 44 criteria on foreign-patient management and 92 criteria on patient safety. The accredited institutions are published as a list, and it is short.
Updated 2026-11-02
If a Korean clinic goes wrong: the official dispute route
South Korea has a statutory body, the Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency, that handles medical disputes outside the courts. The government's own plain-language guidance states that an application may be made by a party to the dispute or their representative and sets no nationality condition. The outcomes carry real legal weight: an arbitration decision has the same effect as a final court judgment.
Updated 2026-11-02
Your medical records in South Korea: the right, and what it costs
Yes, and it is a statutory right rather than a favour. Article 21 of the Medical Service Act lets a patient require inspection or copies of their own records, and the same article forbids the clinic from handing them to anyone else except in listed cases, such as a representative carrying your written consent and proof of authority. The ministry also caps what may be charged: 1,000 won per page for the first five pages and 100 won per page from the sixth, and 20,000 won for an English-language general medical certificate.
Updated 2026-11-02
South Korea's medical visas: C-3-3 and G-1-10
South Korea has two categories for patients: C-3-3 for short-term treatment, allowing a stay of up to 90 days, and G-1-10 for treatment of 91 days or longer. A caregiver may travel on the same basis as the patient. Only a medical institution or facilitator registered to attract foreign patients can issue the invitation that supports a C-3-3 application, which makes the visa route and the registration scheme the same check.
Updated 2026-11-02
South Korea's VAT refund on cosmetic procedures ended on 1 January 2026
No. The refund was a special measure under Article 107-3 of South Korea's Restriction of Special Taxation Act, and that article limited it to cosmetic medical services supplied on or before 31 December 2025. The 2025 tax reform did not extend it, so procedures from 1 January 2026 carry the full 10% VAT with no refund. Several official and clinic pages have not been updated and still describe the refund as available.
Updated 2026-11-02

Who publishes what

The Korean ministries, agencies, and statutes these pages rely on, and the official pages each one publishes. Most are Korean-language; the tag says which.

Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service
Public agency
건강보험심사평가원
Reviews health insurance claims and, with the Ministry of Health and Welfare, publishes the non-covered (비급여) prices institutions report — the category almost all aesthetic treatment falls into.
- 비급여 진료비용 정보 — published clinic priceskoSearch a clinic's Korean name
- Non-covered price data (open API)ko
- 건강보험심사평가원ko
Read: What a Korean clinic must post about its prices — and cannot exceed →
Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency
Public agency
한국의료분쟁조정중재원
The statutory body that mediates and arbitrates medical disputes outside the courts. An arbitration decision has the same effect as a final court judgment, and the published eligibility rules set no nationality condition.
- K-Medi (English)en
- How the system worksen
- Apply for mediationen
- Easy Law: resolving a medical disputekoThe government's plain-language explanation, with the article numbers
Read: If a Korean clinic goes wrong: the official dispute route →
Korean Accreditation Program for Hospitals serving Foreign patients
Accreditation programme
외국인환자 유치의료기관 평가인증
An accreditation tier above basic registration, run under Medical Korea. Institutions must already hold KOIHA healthcare accreditation, then are assessed on 44 foreign-patient criteria and 92 patient-safety criteria.
- Accreditation programme and the accredited listenThe accredited institutions are listed on the page itself
- KAHF explained (Korea Tourism Organization)en
Read: KAHF accreditation: the tier above registration in South Korea →
Korea Health Industry Development Institute
Public agency
한국보건산업진흥원
The public institute that administers foreign-patient attraction registration for the Ministry of Health and Welfare and runs the Medical Korea portal, where the register of institutions permitted to treat foreign patients is published.
- Medical KoreaenThe portal for international patients
- Registration system explaineden
- 외국인환자유치 정보시스템 — the register itselfkoSearch a clinic's Korean name here
- Registered institutions datasetkoThe same register as open data
- KHIDIen
Read: Is your Korean clinic registered to treat foreign patients? →
Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation
Accreditation programme
의료기관평가인증원
South Korea's healthcare accreditation body. Its accreditation is the prerequisite an institution must already hold before it can be assessed for KAHF, the foreign-patient accreditation — which is why so few small clinics can ever appear on that list.
- 의료기관평가인증원ko
Korea Immigration Service
Public agency
법무부 출입국·외국인정책본부
The immigration authority of the Ministry of Justice. It sets the visa categories foreign patients travel on, including the C-3-3 medical tourism visa and the G-1-10 treatment and recuperation visa.
- Korea Immigration Service (English)enVisa categories, K-ETA and e-services
- Korea Visa PortalenElectronic visa applications and confirmation of visa issuance
Read: South Korea's medical visas: C-3-3 and G-1-10 →
Korea Tourism Organization
Public agency
한국관광공사
The national tourism body. It publishes English-language travel and medical-tourism information and runs the 1330 travel helpline, which answers in eight languages and can interpret a call for you.
- VisitKorea (English)en
- 1330 Travel HelplineenCall 1330 in South Korea, or +82-2-1330 from abroad. Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay
- Medical tourism visa issuanceenCheck the page's update date — tourism pages here have run behind the law
National Law Information Center
Public agency
국가법령정보센터
Where every Korean statute, decree and enforcement rule is published, with official English translations for major acts. When a tourism page, a clinic, or a guide disagrees with the law, this is the site that settles it.
- 국가법령정보센터koThe statutes themselves, with amendment dates
- Easy Law — plain-language guideskoThe government's own explanation of what a law means in practice
- Korea Legislation Research Institute — English statutesenOfficial English translations
Medical Service Act
Statute
의료법
South Korea's principal statute on medical practice. It prohibits introducing, referring or soliciting patients for profit, requires clinics to post their non-covered prices, and forbids charging more than the posted amount. An official English translation is published by the government.
- Medical Service Act — official English translationenRead Article 27(3) on patient solicitation and Article 45 on posted prices
- MEDICAL SERVICE ACT (English PDF)en
- 의료법 (Korean text)koSearch 의료법 on the National Law Information Center
Read: Your medical records in South Korea: the right, and what it costs →
Ministry of Food and Drug Safety
Ministry
식품의약품안전처
Approves medical devices and drugs for use in South Korea and publishes what it has approved. Whether a laser, energy device, or injectable is licensed here — and for what — is decided and recorded by this ministry.
- MFDS (English)en
- 의료기기 안심책방 — device informationkoLasers, ultrasound and radiofrequency devices
- 의약품안전나라 — drugs and biologicskoBotulinum toxins and injectables
Read: How to check whether a device or injectable is approved in South Korea →
Ministry of Health and Welfare
Ministry
보건복지부
The ministry responsible for health policy. It runs the registration system that decides which clinics may treat foreign patients, and sets the standard under which non-covered prices are reported and published.
- Ministry of Health and Welfareen
- 보건복지부ko
- Notices, rules and guidelines (훈령·예규·고시)koWhere the reporting and disclosure standards are published
National Health Insurance Service
Public agency
국민건강보험공단
South Korea's national health insurer. Aesthetic treatment is outside what it pays for, but it is one of the two bodies the Ministry delegates the reporting and disclosure of non-covered prices to.
- National Health Insurance Service (English)en
- 국민건강보험공단ko
Restriction of Special Taxation Act
Statute
조세특례제한법
The statute that carried the VAT refund for foreign tourists receiving cosmetic medical services, under Article 107-3. The benefit applied to services supplied on or before 31 December 2025 and was not extended.
- 조세특례제한법 제107조의3koCheck the qualifying period in the article text — this is the authority, not a tourism page
- 국가법령정보센터ko
Read: South Korea's VAT refund on cosmetic procedures ended on 1 January 2026 →

Who publishes what

Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service

Korea Medical Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency

Korean Accreditation Program for Hospitals serving Foreign patients

Korea Health Industry Development Institute

Korea Institute for Healthcare Accreditation

Korea Immigration Service

Korea Tourism Organization

National Law Information Center

Medical Service Act

Ministry of Food and Drug Safety

Ministry of Health and Welfare

National Health Insurance Service

Restriction of Special Taxation Act