Getting an English medical certificate for your insurance claim
What the document is called, what Korean hospitals charge for it, and why you must request it before you fly home rather than after.
4 min read
This is the cheapest item on the entire site and the one most likely to cost you real money if you skip it. If you intend to claim any of your Korean treatment back from an insurer, you need documentation in English, and you need to ask for it while you are still in the building.
What to ask for
The document is a medical certificate — in Korean, a diagnosis certificate — issued in English. Korean hospitals produce these routinely; there is a standard fee for it and it appears in the public price disclosure, which is how we can show you the figure above.
Ask for all of the following before you leave:
- The English medical certificate. Diagnosis, treatment given, and dates. This is the core document every insurer wants.
- An itemised receipt. A total is rarely enough; insurers want to see what each charge was for.
- Copies of your medical records, if treatment was more than a single visit.
- Imaging on disc, if you had a scan. Your own doctor can read the images directly rather than repeating the scan.
| Procedure | Median | Range | Hospitals |
|---|---|---|---|
| English-language medical certificate | ₩20,000 $14 | ₩5,000 – ₩50,000 | 2049 |
| Copy of medical records (1 to 5 pages) | ₩1,000 $1 | ₩100 – ₩5,000 | 3782 |
| Imaging records on CD | ₩10,000 $7 | ₩1,000 – ₩20,000 | 2958 |
Why the fee varies between hospitals
Certificate fees are set by each hospital within the disclosure framework, so the range on the page above is real. It is a small enough sum that it should not influence where you are treated — but it is a fair proxy for how routinely an institution deals with foreign patients. A hospital with a published English certificate fee has issued them before.
What the certificate does not do
It is a record of diagnosis and treatment. It is not a pre-authorisation, and it does not commit your insurer to anything. If your policy requires approval before treatment, obtaining a certificate afterwards will not substitute for it — check your policy’s pre-authorisation rules before you travel, not after.
If you are travelling specifically for treatment
Many travel policies exclude planned medical treatment abroad, covering only unexpected illness or injury. Elective treatment you flew in for may not be claimable at all, regardless of documentation.
That does not make the certificate pointless. Your own doctor will want to know what was done, and if a complication develops after you return, a clear English record of the procedure is the difference between continuity of care and starting from nothing.
Where to check the fee
The certificate page lists every hospital that discloses this fee, by region. It sits alongside room charges and records fees on the rooms and certificates page.
Figures on this page are read from the published disclosure data at build time, so they match the price pages exactly. This is general information about published prices, not medical advice, and it does not recommend any hospital. Confirm any figure with the hospital before treatment.