How to Check if a Korean Hospital Is Registered for Foreign Patients

Where do you start when checking a hospital's registration in Korea?

On the first screen of Medical Korea's information system for attracting foreign patients (외국인환자유치정보시스템). It has one search by business registration number and another by name, type and region.

The system sits inside the Medical Korea site, which the Korea Health Industry Development Institute runs. The search by name, type and region is labeled 유치기관현황, and the screen says that leaving the name blank returns the full list. The same screen has a separate search for evaluated and certified institutions, 평가인증기관현황. The English site has two pages, Registered Hospitals for medical institutions and Registered Facilitators for facilitators.

The menu names are those on the screen as opened on 5 Oct 2026. The rows for the certificate, the notice in English and what you are given before treatment are checked away from the screen, and they come from duties that the Act and its Enforcement Rule place on registered institutions.

What does checking a hospital's registration tell you?

That the institution met the requirements in the law and registered with its city or provincial governor. The basis is Article 6 of the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients.

Under that article, medical institutions and facilitators that want to attract foreign patients must register, and the requirements differ. A medical institution needs at least one specialist for each department in which it will attract patients, and it must hold medical malpractice liability insurance or belong to a medical liability mutual aid association. A facilitator needs guarantee insurance, capital and an office in Korea, and the Enforcement Rule sets both the insurance amount and the capital at 100 million won or more.

For both, a registration is valid for three years from the registration date. To keep attracting patients, the registration must be renewed before it expires, and the renewal application goes to the governor within the two months before expiry.

That is as far as a search result goes. It shows that the requirements above were met at registration, and it does not describe the care given afterward or its results.

How many institutions appear when checking a hospital's registration online?

On 5 Oct 2026 the search returned 4,409 medical institutions and 2,886 facilitators with the status "maintained" (유지). That is what the live screen showed on that day.

Separately, the Korean Public Data Portal carries a list that the Korea Health Industry Development Institute published as of 21 Jul 2026. It has 4,188 medical institutions and 2,733 facilitators, and every row has the status "maintained". The two sets of numbers have different dates and were obtained in different ways, so K-Medical Tourism Institute shows them side by side and does not subtract or divide one by the other.

Counts from the list by region are in Korea Medical Tourism Hospitals by Region.

After checking a hospital's registration, what should you see at the hospital itself?

A registration certificate on display and a notice in English. Article 8 of the Act and Article 7 of the Enforcement Rule require registered institutions to post them and to hand over certain information.

Article 8 covers the posting of the certificate and lists three things to be given to the patient: the diagnosis, treatment method and possible side effects; a treatment contract in the form set by the Minister of Health and Welfare, with the estimated cost; and the dispute resolution procedure if a medical accident happens. Under Article 7 of the Enforcement Rule, a document in English on the services and their terms, the dispute resolution procedure and personal data protection must also be posted inside the medical institution or place of business.

• Does the institution appear on the search screen? Look in 등록기관조회 (by business registration number) or 유치기관현황 (by name, type and region)
• Is a registration certificate on display? Article 8 of the Act has registered institutions post it
• Is there a notice in English? It covers the services and their terms, the dispute resolution procedure and personal data protection (Enforcement Rule, Article 7)
• Were you given the diagnosis, treatment method and possible side effects? This is item 1 of Article 8, paragraph 2
• Were you given a treatment contract and an estimated cost? This is item 2 of the same paragraph
• Were you given the dispute resolution procedure for a medical accident? This is item 3 of the same paragraph

The first item comes from the official search screen and the other five from duties that the law places on registered institutions. None of them tells you about the quality or outcome of care.

Where do you report unregistered solicitation after checking a hospital's registration?

To the report center that the source list calls "illicit solicitation of international patients report center". Under Article 28 of the Act, a person who attracts foreign patients without registering faces up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won.

The center takes two kinds of report: solicitation by an institution that is not registered (Article 6) and false information given by a registered institution (Article 9). Its focus is illegal solicitation advertising online. You sign up and log in, fill in the online report form and attach evidence such as a screenshot of the advertisement.

The center reviews what it receives and notifies the local government with jurisdiction, and that local government makes the final decision on whether there was a violation and on any administrative action. The phone line for questions about reports is 1577-7129 (Medical Korea Information Center).

The report center address in the source list (www.kmediwatch.kr) opened on 5 Oct 2026. On the same day it led to the report center screen inside the Medical Korea site. Other contacts, including dispute mediation, are in Help for Foreign Patients in Korea.

What can checking a hospital's registration not tell you?

The quality, cost and safety of care, or how one institution compares with another. None of the laws and public data that K-Medical Tourism Institute checked contains that information.

There is no basis for reading a search result as "safe" or "better". Registration only says that the legal requirements were met when the institution registered. What K-Medical Tourism Institute writes is taken from the law and from the agencies' own pages, and it is not a substitute for legal or medical advice.

The menus and counts on the search screen are as seen on 5 Oct 2026. The articles cited are from the Act now in force (in force from 12 May 2026, Act No. 21112) and its Enforcement Rule (in force from 15 May 2026, MOHW Ordinance No. 1175).

The 21 Jul 2026 figures are counts by region and institution type from "Registered institutions and facilitators for foreign patients (list)", a 6,921-row list published by the same institute. 33 rows have the word "test" in the institution or representative name. They could not be told apart from real entries with certainty and were left in, so the true number of institutions may be slightly lower.