‘Korea ought to ease quarantine directives to revive medical tourism’

Korea should relax quarantine guidelines for foreigners to attract more international patients and revitalize the medical tourism industry hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, experts said.

Experts urged the government to develop new strategies for attracting foreign patients at Medical Korea 2021, a conference on global health care and medical tourism hosted by the Department of Health and Social Welfare and sponsored by the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI).

Andy Hong, Head of the Global Healthcare (Inbound) Policy & Planning Team at KHIDI, described the years from 2021 to 2025 as the “Medical Korea 3.0 Era”, which includes all times with ongoing Covid-19 and Post-Covid-19.

Experts will discuss how Korea should attract foreign patients during the post-Covid-19 era at a Medical Korea 2021 conference at COEX in south Seoul on Thursday.

“The nation needs a new long-term strategy to attract international patients and every medical facility and agency should prepare for it,” he said.

Jin Do-yeoun, administrative director at the International Healthcare Center at Korea University Anam Hospital, pointed out that quarantine policies and visa issues are preventing international patients from visiting Korea.

According to Jin, most foreign patients from Mongolia, Russia and Kazakhstan are not doing well financially, but mandatory hospital quarantine for two weeks as part of the fast-track program costs over 12 million won (US $ 10,592). The Fast Track Program enables a critically ill foreign patient to receive medical treatment in a hospital, provided that the patient remains in a single room.

“The fast-track program is only for wealthy patients,” she said. Jin called for quarantine guidelines to be relaxed for foreign patients who have already received a Covid-19 vaccine in order to increase the number of international patients.

If the government doesn’t do this, Korea will remain on the status quo in medical tourism for foreigners, she added.

In response, Hong of KHIDI said the institute had not established clear policies for foreign patients entering Korea. “Last year the fast-track program only allowed seriously ill patients. But this year we plan to extend it to patients with mild symptoms, ”he said.

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, international patients could visit Korea as long as they could afford minimal medical expenses and expenses for their stay in Korea. However, after the pandemic, only critically ill patients in need of urgent care or affluent patients could visit Korea, Hong added.

Kim Chang-sik, team manager at Sun Medical Center’s international health department, said hospitals in provincial areas with limited infrastructure rarely attract foreign patients through agents, unlike those in Seoul where agents are actively involved.

The government is raising the bar for attracting foreign patients. In this case, international patients are likely to prefer hospitals in the Seoul metropolitan area, and medical facilities in remote areas will lose opportunities to attract them, Kim noted. He urged the government to establish conditions that will help regional medical facilities to attract foreign patients.

Others warned of the government’s push to increase the number of foreign patients, citing the ongoing pandemic.

Lee Hwang, CEO of Ascle InterMed, said it will be difficult for medical facilities to attract foreign patients for profit while Koreans are still concerned about imported Covid-19 cases. “There should be a public consensus on attracting foreign patients,” he said.

Another expert pointed out the need to take advantage of digital health care.

Jason Jeong, CEO of H & Consulting, said digital health care is key to Medical Korea 3.0. However, the country’s institutional and legal actions don’t reflect much digital health care when it comes to promoting international patient visits, he said.

The Law to Aid the Expansion of Medical Care Overseas and Attract International Patients, which came into effect this year, continues to be based on the “positive” whitelisting system, while the laws for the other industries are based on the “negative” blacklisting – The system will be changed over to all options with a few exceptions, Jeong noted.

“The government should offer various support measures and opportunities for telemedicine,” he added.