Paying for treatment and claiming it back

Korean hospitals expect payment at the time of treatment. There is no billing you later and no arrangement with your insurer — you pay, and then you claim it back yourself if your policy covers it.

Which makes the paperwork the part that decides whether you get your money back.

How payment works

• Card is accepted everywhere at hospital-grade institutions. Foreign cards are generally fine, but tell your bank you are travelling — a large medical charge from a foreign hospital is exactly what fraud systems block.
• Payment is usually per visit, settled at a payment desk before you leave. For inpatient stays, at discharge.
• A deposit may be requested before a planned procedure or admission, particularly for foreign patients without local insurance.
• Ask about the total before treatment, not after. Nothing about the system prevents you from asking; it just does not volunteer.

What your insurer will want

Almost every foreign insurer asks for the same three things, and all three are far easier to obtain while you are still in the country.

1. An English-language medical certificate stating diagnosis and treatment. This is the document most claims turn on.
2. An itemised receipt showing what you were charged for. Ask specifically for an itemised one; the default receipt may be a single total.
3. Copies of your records, and imaging on disc if scans were taken.

The medical certificate guide covers what to ask for and why timing matters.

Before you travel

Check what your policy actually covers. Most standard travel insurance covers emergencies and explicitly excludes planned or elective treatment abroad. If you are travelling specifically to be treated, ordinary travel cover is unlikely to help.

Worth confirming in writing with your insurer beforehand:

• Is planned treatment abroad covered at all?
• Do they require pre-authorisation? Many do, and claims without it are refused.
• Will they reimburse in your home currency, and at what exchange rate?
• What documentation format do they need, and does it have to be translated or certified?

Currency and exchange

Prices are set in Korean won. Dollar figures on this site are an indicative conversion for scale only — what your card issuer charges will differ, and paying in your home currency at the terminal (dynamic currency conversion) is almost always worse than paying in won.

Keep everything

Receipts, certificates, records, discharge summaries, prescriptions. Photograph them before you fly. Claims are often refused for missing paperwork rather than for the treatment itself, and reconstructing a Korean hospital record from another country is genuinely difficult.