Health checkup packages for foreigners in Korea

Published 17 September 2026 · Last updated 27 September 2026 · 9 min read · By Jae Han

How Korean hospitals tier their checkup packages, which tests move the price, what the package price covers line by line, and how to check an add-on against a public Korean benchmark before you book.

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A Korean checkup package is a bundle of ordinary tests run in one morning by a department built to do nothing else. This page is about the bundle: what each tier contains, which items move the price, and what the package fee does and does not cover. The day itself, the fasting rules and sedation are covered in the checkup-day article, and the cancer-specific tests in the cancer screening article.

#The three tiers, and what each one adds

Large Korean hospitals with international health promotion centres sell checkups in tiers. The names differ (basic, standard, premium; or bronze, silver, gold), but the structure is the same: each tier is the one below plus a block of imaging or endoscopy. The word premium is a label, not a standard, and two premium packages at two hospitals can differ by an MRI. The itemised test list is the only document that tells you what you are buying.

Most centres also sell themed packages: heart, brain, digestive, women's. A themed package is the standard tier with one organ system examined in more depth, so a person with one specific worry usually gets more from it than from the top tier of everything. A brain package, for example, swaps the wide cancer-marker panel for MRI and MRA of the head and neck vessels; a digestive package adds colonoscopy and abdominal CT to the gastroscopy that the standard tier already has.

#What moves the price

The gap between tiers is mostly imaging depth and endoscopy, not the number of blood tests. In rough order of how much each one adds to a package fee:

1. PET-CT and MRI series. These are usually priced as separate lines even inside a premium tier, and they are the items that most often separate one hospital's premium package from another's
2. CT of the chest or abdomen, with or without contrast dye. Contrast, if a scan turns out to need it, is often a separate charge
3. Colonoscopy, and with it the bowel-preparation kit, sedation, and the removal and pathology of any polyp found
4. Gastroscopy under sedation. Sedated (sleep) endoscopy is the norm in Korea and is charged on top of the unsedated procedure
5. A results consultation with a doctor, in person or by video, rather than a written report alone
6. An overnight room for a two-day package, translation of the report, and a disc or download of the images

The practical consequence is that a standard package with one add-on chosen in advance is often cheaper than the premium tier, and closer to what a doctor would order for someone of your age. Add-ons chosen on the day are billed at list price, so the choice belongs in the booking email, with the price of each item in writing.

#What the package fee covers, line by line

• Usually included: every test on the itemised list, the gown and locker, a light meal afterwards, a written report, and at larger centres an English-speaking coordinator on the day
• Often charged separately: sedation for endoscopy, removal of a polyp and the pathology on it, any biopsy, and contrast dye if a scan turns out to need it
• Often charged separately: an in-person results consultation with a doctor, translation of the report, a disc or download of the images, and postage abroad
• Never included: follow-up tests or specialist appointments prompted by a finding. Those are billed as ordinary outpatient care at the hospital's international rate
• Interpreting on the checkup day is often included; interpreting at a later results consultation is not always. Ask about both

Verify before you rely on this: Package prices and what counts as basic or premium change by hospital and by year, and foreign patients are billed outside national health insurance regardless of tier. Confirm the current price and the exact test list with the hospital's international centre before booking. Travel insurance does not normally pay for an elective checkup or for following up what it finds; the difference between travel and medical cover is set out in the insurance guide linked below.

#Checking an add-on against a Korean benchmark

There is no official price list for international checkup packages, so this page gives no figures; how to read the quote you do receive is covered in the guide to reading a Korean clinic quote. There is, however, a public reference for what single items cost Korean patients at a given hospital.

Verify before you rely on this: A Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) notice from April 2019 states that per-hospital prices for non-covered (비급여) items at hospital-level institutions are published on hira.or.kr and its mobile app under 진료비 > 비급여진료비정보; menus move, so search the site for 비급여 if that path has changed. It is in Korean and shows local prices, not international package prices, but it is a public reference for what a single add-on such as an MRI or a PET-CT costs at a given hospital, and a way to see whether the add-on line on your quote is far above what the same hospital reports for its own patients.

#Choosing a package for your age and history

More imaging finds more incidental oddities: small cysts and nodules that are usually harmless but need a follow-up scan. For a resident that means another appointment. For a visitor it means finding a doctor at home willing to follow up another country's scan. That is the argument for asking the centre's doctor, before you pay, which tests they would leave out for someone of your age and history, rather than buying the widest net on offer.

• Anyone with symptoms. A lump, bleeding, unexplained weight loss or chest pain needs a diagnostic appointment with a specialist, not a screening package; a package is slower and less targeted
• Anyone who is or might be pregnant. The NHS asks patients to say so before CT, and X-ray and sedation decisions change too. Tell the centre when booking, so the package can be rebuilt without those tests
• People with a pacemaker or metal implants should declare them before any MRI is added; people with kidney or thyroid problems, diabetes or a past reaction to contrast dye should declare that before a contrast CT
• People on anticoagulants or diabetes medication are not excluded, but the preparation is individual and a doctor has to set it. Centres sometimes defer endoscopy rather than improvise
• People who had the same scan recently. Repeating CT within months adds radiation and rarely adds information; bring the old images and choose a package without it
• Some tests are timed around the menstrual cycle. Ask when booking so the dates can be chosen accordingly

#How many nights the package decides

The planning default on this page is three nights for a basic or standard one-day package: one to arrive and start fasting, the checkup morning, and one clear day for a repeated test or a results summary before flying. Take four if a colonoscopy is included, because the NHS describes two days of low-fibre food before it and pathology on any polyp takes days, or if the centre offers a results consultation with a doctor a day or two after the tests. A package with PET-CT or an MRI series usually spreads the tests over two mornings, and the cancer screening article budgets four to five nights for that. The hour-by-hour shape of the checkup day, the bowel-preparation timeline and what sedation does to the afternoon are in the checkup-day article.

#Eight things to settle with the international centre before paying

• The itemised test list for this package, and the price of each optional add-on on its own line
• Whether sedation is included in the price, and whether polyp removal and the pathology on it are
• Which of your regular medicines to take as normal on the day, and who decides about the others; send the list, do not summarise it
• Whether you can bring previous results or imaging for comparison, and in what format they want them
• When the full report is ready, in which language, and whether the images come with it
• Whether a doctor explains the results in person, by video or by phone, and whether that is charged separately
• If a test needs repeating or a finding needs a specialist, how soon that can be arranged within your stay, and at what rate
• The cancellation and rescheduling terms if a flight is delayed or a pre-test check rules something out

Practical note: A basic and a premium package feel the same on the day: a gown, a wristband and a lot of waiting between stations. What the higher tier changes is the number of imaging rooms you pass through and the number of findings that need a follow-up letter afterwards. Ask for a sample English report before booking; a centre that can produce one has already solved the translation question.

An abnormal line in a checkup report is not a diagnosis. The centre should say, for each finding, which of three categories it is in: no action, repeat after a stated interval, or see a specialist now. For the third, a hospital-based centre can usually book the specialist within days; a stand-alone screening centre refers you elsewhere. Either way the follow-up is billed as ordinary outpatient care, outside the package, so ask for the category and the cost before you leave.

#Common questions

Can I add one test to a basic package instead of buying the next tier?

Usually yes, and it is often the better deal, because each tier adds a block of tests of which you may want only one. Ask for the add-on price on its own line in the booking email. Add-ons chosen on the day are billed at list price, and the endoscopy and imaging slots are scheduled before you arrive, so a same-day addition may not fit.

Is a themed heart or brain package better than the premium tier?

If you have one specific concern, usually yes: it examines that system in more depth for less than the top tier of everything, and produces fewer incidental findings in organs you were not worried about. If you have no specific concern, the standard tier with the doctor's choice of one add-on is the common middle path.

Can I get a checkup in Korea on a tourist entry?

A short elective checkup is routinely done during an ordinary short visit, but entry rules depend on your nationality and change. Check HiKorea or a Korean embassy for your own case; a medical visa matters mainly when a long course of treatment follows.

Will the results be in English?

Centres that market to foreign visitors generally produce an English report, but not always at the same speed as the Korean one, and not always including the radiologist's full wording. Ask for a sample report before booking, and ask whether the English version is included in the package fee or billed as translation.

How long do checkup results take?

Basic measurements and some blood results can be ready the same day. Imaging has to be read by a radiologist; the NHS quotes one to two weeks for CT and MRI at home, so ask the Korean centre for its own turnaround in writing. Pathology on a biopsy or polyp takes days at the least. Plan as though the full report arrives after you have left, and settle how it is delivered before you book.

Is the premium package worth it?

Only if the extra tests answer a question you have. The premium tier is built around PET-CT and MRI, and neither is on Korea's own national screening list for people without symptoms. A strong family history or a previous cancer changes that calculation, and the case for it should come from the centre's doctor after reading your history, not from the brochure.

Work out the whole trip: open the total cost calculator with 3 nights filled in. That is a planning default, not a schedule — replace it with the dates your own clinic gives you.

Planning the trip? Tick off the trip checklist — what to get in writing, what to pack and which documents to collect before you fly home — and keep the Korean phrase cards on your phone for taxis and pharmacies.

This site is an information resource, not a medical provider, agency or broker. We do not arrange treatment, refer patients to specific hospitals, or receive commission from clinics for introductions. Nothing here is medical advice — decisions about treatment belong to you and a licensed doctor.

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