After foreign patients leave Korea, aftercare goes untracked

W1.48 billion KHIDI program combines consultation, aftercare targets, without tracking patients who discontinue follow-up

A government-funded program for foreign patients seeking treatment in South Korea has not tracked how many patients stop receiving aftercare after returning home or why, government data shows.

The data, obtained from the Korea Health Industry Development Institute by Rep. So Byung-hoon of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, was released Tuesday.

The program provides preliminary consultations for foreign patients seeking treatment in Korea and follow-up care after they return home, using information and communications technology.

It received 1.1 billion won ($830,000) in funding from 2023 to 2025. An additional 380 million won was allocated this year to a consortium of five institutions.

Established under the Act on Supporting of Overseas Expansion of Medical Services and Attraction of International Patients, the program offers remote consultations and other follow-up medical services to patients after they return to their home countries.

KHIDI told So that it assesses participating institutions based on the combined number of preliminary consultations and aftercare cases, with a minimum annual target of 80 cases. So said this approach could allow an institution to meet its target with 80 preliminary consultations and no aftercare cases.

KHIDI recorded completed aftercare cases but did not separately track how many patients discontinued the service or why.

All participating institutions — four per year from 2023 to 2025 — met their combined targets, with some reporting more than three times the minimum. But those figures do not show whether patients who returned home received adequate follow-up care.

So also said performance verification relied solely on submitted documents, with too few spot checks or field surveys to establish whether patients had actually received sufficient care.

In a written response, KHIDI said it would consider improving its verification system, including through spot checks to determine whether services were properly provided.

“The value and credibility of K-healthcare are fully realized not when patients are brought to Korea, but when they return home safely after treatment and receive proper care through to the end,” So said.

“The Ministry of Health and Welfare and KHIDI should assess preliminary consultations and aftercare separately, and systematically track patients who discontinue aftercare and the reasons why.”