Help for Foreign Patients in Korea

Where can you find help for foreign patients in Korea?

Phone consultation is with the Medical Korea Information Center, disputes after a medical accident go to the Korea Medical dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency (K-MEDI), and unregistered solicitation is reported to a dedicated report center. 5 more sites cover interpretation, the tourist police and visas.

7 of the 8 contacts appear on the Medical Korea list of websites published by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (source dated 29 Aug 2023). The Medical Korea Information Center is not on that list. Its phone number and hours come from the center guidance on the Medical Korea website.

The full list is in Official Medical Tourism Websites in Korea, and choosing an office by situation is covered in Which Official Korean Medical Tourism Office Should You Contact?.

Which phone line offers help for foreign patients in Korea?

The Medical Korea Information Center. It takes calls on +82-2-1577-7129 every day from 09:00 to 18:00 Korea time, and has desks at Seoul Station and at Incheon International Airport Terminal 1.

The center's English guidance lists these services.

• Consultation on entry and exit visas
• Information on medical institutions
• Help with reserving medical services
• Consultation on medical complaints and disputes, and support for transfer to the Korea Medical dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency
• Consultation on illegal brokerage

The guidance page gives two different lists of supported languages, so K-Medical Tourism Institute does not state them. The report center for illegal solicitation gives this center's number (1577-7129) as its line for questions about reporting.

What help for foreign patients in Korea is there after a medical accident, and in what order does it work?

Mediation through K-MEDI. The system applies to people who are not Korean nationals, and the agency gives the processing period as within 90 days of the day mediation begins.

The period can be extended by up to 30 days, which makes 120 days the longest. Mediation begins only when the respondent agrees to take part, except that it begins automatically, without consent, for accidents involving death, unconsciousness lasting one month or longer, or severe disability.

A concluded mediation has the same effect as a settlement reached in court. No source says in advance whether a given case will be settled, or on what terms.

What fees apply to dispute mediation, a form of help for foreign patients in Korea?

The base fee is 22,000 won. That applies when the amount claimed is 5 million won or less, and the fee rises with the amount claimed.

If the case is dismissed because the respondent does not consent to mediation, the fee is refunded in full. The amounts are in Korean won, as given in the agency's guidance on how to apply.

Which office takes reports of illegal solicitation as help for foreign patients in Korea?

The report center run by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute, listed in the source as "illicit solicitation of international patients report center". It takes online reports of solicitation by unregistered parties and of false information given by registered ones.

The examples of violations the center gives are an unregistered party taking consultations or bookings through a foreign-language website or social media, a party that keeps soliciting after its registration was cancelled, it closed down or it failed to renew, and a hospital network directing patients to a branch that is not registered. Reports center on illegal online medical advertising aimed at foreign patients.

Questions about reporting go to 1577-7129 (Medical Korea Information Center), and questions about using the reporting system go to 043-713-8932 (Korea Health Industry Development Institute). The address in the source, www.kmediwatch.kr, forwards to www.medicalkorea.or.kr/kmediwatch.

Under Article 28 of the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients, a person who attracts foreign patients without registering is liable to imprisonment of up to 3 years or a fine of up to 30 million won. Whether a hospital or facilitator is registered can be looked up by following How to Check if a Korean Hospital Is Registered for Foreign Patients.

Where is help for foreign patients in Korea with interpretation, the tourist police and visas?

The official list has 5 such sites: 3 under tourist help and interpretation and 2 under immigration and visas.

The source gives these contacts a name and an address, with no description of what they do. The name of the KTO entry carries three languages, "KTO (English, Japanese, Chinese)", and the name of the Bbb Korea entry mentions 19 languages.

Visa consultation is also among the services of the Medical Korea Information Center. K-Medical Tourism Institute does not state how long a medical visa is valid, because the guidance from the Korea Tourism Organization and from Korean diplomatic missions gives different periods.

Did the websites that offer help for foreign patients in Korea open on 5 Oct 2026?

5 of the 7 listed addresses opened as written. Of the rest, 1 had a changed path and 1 could not be verified automatically.

The address listed for Korea Medical dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency (www.k-medi.or.kr/index.do) returned a 404 response on 5 Oct 2026, while the home page on the same host (www.k-medi.or.kr/web/index.do) opened. The address listed for KNPA(Korea Tourist Police) (police.go.kr/eng/main.do) answered, but the automatic check could not reach the final page. The final address recorded for illicit solicitation of international patients report center was plain http, not https. None of these results can be read as an organization or its website having closed.

What are the offices that provide help for foreign patients in Korea called in English, Japanese, Chinese and Russian?

The source gives the 7 listed contacts a name in each of the 4 languages. The Medical Korea Information Center is the English name used on the Medical Korea website.

Names are reproduced as written in the source, down to capitalization and spacing. The English column reads "Korea Medical dispute Mediation and Arbitration Agency" for the mediation agency and "illicit solicitation of international patients report center" for the report center. Showing the name in the right language can help when asking a hospital front desk or an interpreter about one of these offices.

What should you keep in mind when reading the figures on help for foreign patients in Korea?

Phone numbers, hours, time limits and fees were read from each organization's guidance on 5 Oct 2026. The guidance pages of the mediation agency and of the Medical Korea Information Center show no date of writing.

Three things are left out because official guidance states them differently in different places: the fee formula for claims above 50 million won, the languages supported by the information center, and how long a medical visa is valid.

K-Medical Tourism Institute does not judge whether mediation or a lawsuit is the better course. Anything that calls for a legal opinion is outside the scope of this material.

The link check records only whether an address opens. "Path changed" and "Could not verify automatically" cannot be read as a site having closed.

Where do the figures on help for foreign patients in Korea come from, and how were they calculated?

The list reproduces the names and addresses of the 36 entries in "Medical Korea list of useful websites for medical tourism", published by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute on the Korean Public Data Portal (data as of 29 Aug 2023). The source has no categories or regions; K-Medical Tourism Institute added them. The link check is K-Medical Tourism Institute's own: each address was opened on 5 Oct 2026, with 32 opening, 1 with a changed path, 1 that could not be verified automatically and 2 not responding.

The mediation system and fees come from the mediation agency's pages on the system and on how to apply, the phone number and hours from the English guidance for the Medical Korea Information Center, and the reporting rules and steps from the report center's page. The legal provisions are from the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare System and Attraction of International Patients on the Korea Law Information Center (in force from 12 May 2026, Act No. 21112). K-Medical Tourism Institute has added no procedure beyond what each organization states.

"Opens" means the listed address opened. "Path changed" means the listed path did not open and the home page on the same host did. "Could not verify automatically" means the server answered but the automatic check could not reach the final page, and "No response" means the server could not be found or refused the connection. Addresses that did not respond are shown as plain text with no link.