Korea Is Legalising Online Consultations for Foreign Patients

One of the most common questions from people considering treatment in Korea has no good answer today: what happens after you fly home? A short trip leaves little room for a proper consultation beforehand and none at all for follow-up afterwards. On 26 May 2026 the Korean government promulgated an amendment that addresses exactly this gap — but it is not in force yet, and the difference between promulgation and enforcement matters a great deal here.

Can foreign patients have an online consultation with a Korean doctor?

Not yet under this framework. Korea promulgated an amendment to the Act on Support for Overseas Expansion of Healthcare and Attraction of Foreign Patients on 26 May 2026 that creates the legal basis for it. The Ministry of Health and Welfare states the amendment takes effect one year after promulgation — so from 2027.

Promulgation is the publication of a law that has passed. Enforcement is when it begins to bind. Korean statutes routinely leave a gap between the two so that subordinate regulations can be written, and the Ministry has said it is preparing those now. Until enforcement, there is no legal route for a Korean clinic to diagnose or prescribe for a foreign patient remotely.

What will the amendment actually allow?

Doctors, dentists and Korean-medicine doctors working at registered foreign-patient institutions will be able to use information and communication technology for ongoing monitoring, consultation and education, diagnosis, and prescription — as pre-treatment and post-treatment care for foreign patients, including first-visit patients.

Two details in that sentence carry most of the weight. The first is that it covers care before arrival and after departure — the Ministry frames the change as a response to foreign patients staying in Korea for only short periods. The second is the inclusion of first-visit patients, which is what separates this from the rules that apply to domestic patients.

The Ministry is explicit about why a second law was needed: telemedicine permitted for domestic patients under the amended Medical Service Act is centred on returning patients and clinic-level institutions, which made it difficult to apply to foreign patients, who by definition are usually consulting for the first time.

Which clinics will be allowed to consult online?

Only medical institutions registered to attract foreign patients. Registration is already mandatory for institutions treating and marketing to overseas patients, and the amendment adds a penalty: breaching the prescribed procedures for remote consultation can lead to cancellation of that registration.

That concentration is why the clinic-level and hospital-level scope matters. The amendment also provides for a government-backed support system through which remote consultation and prescription can be carried out, and allows its operation to be entrusted to a specialist body. How that system will work in practice is one of the things the subordinate regulations have to settle.

What does this change for someone planning treatment in Korea?

From 2027, a pre-travel consultation and post-return follow-up should become services the treating institution provides under a legal framework, rather than informal messaging with no regulatory standing. Until then, nothing has changed, and the operational detail is still being written.

The same amendment makes two further changes aimed at the industry rather than patients: the reporting obligation for overseas healthcare expansion is widened beyond medical institution founders to non-profit corporations and companies incorporated under the Commercial Act, including hospital management service organisations, and the Ministry gains a legal basis to run an annual survey of the sector.