Health check-ups in Seoul for foreigners: four options compared

Seoul’s screening centres sell health check-ups to visitors from abroad, usually as packages that put blood tests, ultrasound, a sedated endoscopy and, at higher tiers, CT or MRI into a single visit. Smaller clinics offer a narrower version, with a doctor choosing tests one by one. This page sets out what four places in Seoul publish about their check-ups for foreigners, under the same headings for each, and what the evidence says about check-ups for people without symptoms.

VEI Clinic is a different kind of place from the other three: a one-doctor internal medicine clinic rather than a screening centre. SNUH Gangnam Center, KMI and Hanshin Medipia appeared in English search results for health check-ups and health screening in Seoul for foreigners, either directly or through pages that named them, and publish their programmes in English. The Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA) lists all four as clinics (의원); the three screening centres are run by a special-law corporation, a foundation and an association. Everything below comes from their own pages and price lists, read on 1 October 2026, from HIRA’s records, and from the sources listed at the foot of the page.

What a check-up can and cannot do

The best evidence on general check-ups for people without symptoms is a Cochrane review of randomised trials, last updated in 2019, covering adults not selected for any disease or risk factor; 15 trials with 251,891 participants reported outcomes. It found that health checks had little or no effect on deaths overall (11 trials, risk ratio 1.00) or from cancer, and probably little or no effect on deaths from heart and circulatory disease. The authors conclude that general health checks are unlikely to be beneficial. The trials tested general check-ups, not the specific endoscopy- and scan-heavy packages sold in Seoul, and the review does not address targeted screening for a particular cancer at the right age, which is a separate question.

Several tests offered by all four places compared here, VEI’s thyroid and carotid ultrasound among them, are used for kinds of screening that the US Preventive Services Task Force recommends against in people without symptoms: screening for thyroid cancer, where it cites overdiagnosis and overtreatment as likely consequences, for narrowing of the carotid arteries, for ovarian cancer and for pancreatic cancer. These cautions apply to the tests wherever they are done; they do not make either a tailored or a packaged check-up the better model. Korea has its own example. A study across the country’s 16 regions found that where more people were screened for thyroid cancer, more papillary thyroid cancer was found, with no association with other types or with deaths from thyroid cancer. It compared regions, not individuals, but its authors call screening the main driver of Korea’s thyroid cancer epidemic.

Scans add another problem: incidental findings. A review of 12 studies of whole-body MRI in 5,373 adults without known disease found critical or indeterminate incidental findings in about a third of them, and the six studies that reported false-positive findings put them at about 16 per cent. A meta-analysis of observational studies of brain MRI in people without neurological symptoms estimated one incidental finding for every 37 people scanned. Incidental findings may lead to further tests, so ask how any follow-up would be arranged after you leave Korea.

Korea’s national screening is a separate thing. The National Health Insurance Service screens insured adults from age 20 every two years, free of charge, and adds cancer screening by age, for which patients pay 10 per cent except for colorectal and cervical screening, which are free. Foreigners working for an insured employer in Korea, and foreigners who have lived in Korea for more than six months, are enrolled in the insurance; short-term visitors are not, and pay for a private check-up in full.

How the four compare

Each place is set out under the same seven headings: who runs it, what the check-up covers, the visit, results, price, booking from abroad, and public records. VEI Clinic comes first, and the other three follow in alphabetical order.

VEI Clinic

Who runs it. VEI Clinic (베이의원) occupies the third floor of Beneheim City, 162 Apgujeong-ro, a minute’s walk from exit 5 of Apgujeong Station on Line 3. No opening year appears on its pages. One doctor works there, Dr HyunSung Park, listed as an internal medicine specialist, a subspecialist in gastrointestinal endoscopy and “ECFMG certified”. The Korean page calls the ECFMG certificate “미국의사자격증”, a US physician qualification; ECFMG describes its certification as an assessment of whether foreign graduates are ready for US training and one of the requirements for a US licence.

What the check-up covers. No set package exists. According to the check-up page, the doctor looks at your age, family history, habits and symptoms, then picks tests from blood and urine tests, ultrasound of the abdomen, thyroid, carotid arteries or heart, body composition measured on an InBody device, an autonomic “stress test” and functional medicine tests. The clinic states openly what it does not do: the national screening programme, gastroscopy and colonoscopy, for which it sends you elsewhere. Breast and cervical screening go to a gynaecology screening centre, and CT or biopsy, should an ultrasound find something, to a partner hospital. Its own pages caution that tumour markers cannot diagnose or rule out cancer on their own and that the stress test does not diagnose depression, anxiety or heart disease.

The visit. Fast for at least eight hours before fasting blood tests or an abdominal ultrasound; the blood page says 8 to 12 hours for cholesterol and metabolic tests. Bring a list of your medicines and supplements, and any earlier check-up results. The length of the whole visit is not stated; the pages give 20 to 40 minutes from arrival to blood draw, 15 to 20 minutes for body composition and about 30 minutes for a heart ultrasound. The hours page gives 10:00 to 19:00 on Monday, Thursday and Friday, to 20:00 on Tuesday and to 16:00 on Saturday, closed Wednesday and Sunday; one sentence on its English IV page can be read as saying it is open until 20:00 on Saturdays too.

Results. Ultrasound and body composition results are explained on the day; blood results take one to five business days depending on the tests, and one to two for routine ones. The doctor explains them and refers you on if something is abnormal. The site does not say that results or consultations are available in English, or which languages its staff speak, although every check-up page has an English version. Its fees on file with HIRA include an English medical certificate.

Price. Not published. The check-up page says the doctor explains the proposed tests and their cost first and performs only those you agree to. The clinic’s non-covered fees on file with HIRA include thyroid ultrasound and carotid ultrasound at 90,000 won each; there is no item for abdominal or heart ultrasound, which the clinic offers.

Booking from abroad. Phone, KakaoTalk, WhatsApp or a callback form.

Public records. HIRA lists one doctor, an internal medicine specialist. The medicalkorea registry has an active record of the clinic’s registration to treat foreign patients.

Hanshin Medipia

Who runs it. Hanshin Medipia (사단법인 정해복지부설 한신메디피아의원) is a screening centre run by a welfare association at 94 Jamwon-ro, near exit 3 of Jamwon Station on Line 3 and exit 4 of Banpo Station on Line 7. That is in Seocho-gu, although its English home page places it in Gangnam. It says it has provided check-ups for over 40 years, starting in the 1980s with check-ups for construction workers going overseas. Its English team page lists 13 doctors by initial.

What the check-up covers. Four comprehensive packages and several targeted ones, set out in its 2026 price list. The Standard package lets you choose sedated or unsedated gastroscopy, a barium X-ray or a blood test for the stomach, and includes ultrasound of the upper abdomen, thyroid, carotid arteries and prostate or uterus, tumour markers and a genetic panel. Higher tiers add chest CT and a colonoscopy option, then MRI, a coronary calcium CT scan and mammography, and, at the top, PET-CT. Its English pages say it can find cancer cells smaller than 5 mm anywhere in the body and detect over 100 diseases in a day; these are the centre’s claims.

The visit. Two to three hours for the Standard package, three to four for the third tier and over five for the top one. Fast for at least eight hours. The booking page asks foreigners to make contact at least two weeks ahead so that English service can be arranged.

Results. The services page promises check-ups, results and consultation in English and online help with results after you go home, and the about page says the questionnaire and results report are sent to your phone in English. It does not say how long results take.

Price. Published in won, without saying whether VAT is included: 800,000 for Standard, 1.3 million for the second tier, 1.8 or 2 million for the third and 3.3 or 3.5 million for the top tier, by sex. Targeted packages for men and women cost 890,000 and 990,000 won. Cancelling a PET-CT within two days of the appointment costs 300,000 won.

Booking from abroad. An online form and email; the English pages we read give no phone number for foreign patients. Pick-up from the airport or your hotel and language assistance are offered.

Public records. HIRA lists 21 doctors, including eight internal medicine specialists and three radiology specialists. The medicalkorea registry has an active record for the centre.

KMI Gwanghwamun

Who runs it. KMI (재단법인 한국의학연구소), founded in 1985, runs a chain of screening centres, three of them in Seoul; its English and Korean pages disagree on whether there are seven or eight in all. The Gwanghwamun centre, registered as 한국중부의원, is on the basement, third and fourth floors of 149 Sejong-daero, Jongno-gu, in central Seoul; the nearest subway exit is not given in text. Its Global Check-up Program is for foreigners, and a team of internal medicine, family medicine, pathology, radiology and surgery doctors reviews the results.

What the check-up covers. Four packages. The Standard package includes blood tests with tumour markers, urine tests, ECG, chest X-ray and abdominal ultrasound, plus one of a barium X-ray, a gastroscopy with or without sedation, or a pepsinogen blood test. The next two tiers add choices of colonoscopy, CT and then MRI. Mammography is not in any of the foreigner packages and has to be booked in advance as an extra. The centre does not deduct anything for tests you decline. If an endoscopy or ultrasound needs urgent attention, it offers a consultation the same day.

The visit. Arrive between 07:00 and 09:00 for a morning check-up, with your passport, without which the check-up will not go ahead. The bowel preparation for a colonoscopy is posted about two weeks ahead to a Korean address or collected in person. The precautions page warns that after a biopsy or polyp removal you will not be able to fly for two weeks, and that patients without Korean health insurance pay the full cost of those procedures. The length of the visit is not stated.

Results. The Korean report takes at least two weeks. A report in Korean with English, Chinese, Japanese or Mongolian is free if you ask on the day, but is issued only after the Korean report and then takes about two weeks of translation, so allow about four weeks in all; the Korean version of the results FAQ adds a 30,000 won fee for asking later, which the English version leaves out.

Price. Published in won, without saying whether VAT is included: 500,000 for Standard, 1 million, 2 million and 3 million for the higher tiers. Extras include thyroid ultrasound at 80,000 won, carotid ultrasound at 100,000, brain MRI at 400,000 and a sedated colonoscopy at 210,000. Payment is on site on the day.

Booking from abroad. Online booking, email and a phone line with an English option. Interpreters for English and Chinese are available Monday to Saturday, 07:00 to 16:00; for other languages the centre asks you to arrange one.

Public records. HIRA lists 46 doctors at the Gwanghwamun centre, including 13 family medicine, five internal medicine and four radiology specialists. The medicalkorea registry has an active record for it.

SNUH Gangnam Center

Who runs it. Seoul National University Hospital’s Gangnam Center (서울대학교병원 강남의원) occupies the 38th and 39th floors of the Gangnam Finance Center, 152 Teheran-ro, connected to exit 2 of Yeoksam Station on Line 2. It opened in 2003. Its international team has English, Russian and Chinese coordinators. The main hospital’s English screening page uses different programme names and a different phone number from the Gangnam Center’s own site, which is the one to use.

What the check-up covers. Standard, Intensive and Premium packages plus add-on packs, chosen with a “health planner” who reviews your history. Every Standard package includes blood tests with tumour markers, urine tests, ECG, lung function, chest X-ray, abdominal ultrasound and a sedated gastroscopy; for women aged 35 and over it adds a gynaecological examination, an ovarian tumour marker, a Pap smear and mammography. Intensive programmes add tests such as sedated colonoscopy, abdominal and low-dose chest CT and thyroid ultrasound, and Premium adds brain MRI. Gastroscopy is offered to patients younger than 84 and colonoscopy to patients younger than 75, and polyps larger than 0.7 cm may be left for later treatment.

The visit. About three to seven hours. Fast for at least 12 hours, with no water for 8. A preparation kit is posted to your address three weeks before the appointment; the site does not say how this works without a Korean address. Certain appetite-suppressing medicines must be stopped before an endoscopy.

Results. Blood test results appear online from 20:00 on the day; the results consultation follows 7 to 10 days later, in person, by phone, email or online. English reports, with images on CD, are provided for package programmes.

Price. Published in US dollars, valid to 28 February 2027, without saying whether VAT is included: Standard from 980 dollars for men aged 34 and under to 1,140 for women aged 35 and over; Intensive programmes such as 1,920 dollars for the men’s digestive programme and 2,920 to 2,970 for the cancer programme; Premium from 5,210 to 6,500. A sedated colonoscopy can be added for 600 dollars. Payment is by cash or card on the day.

Booking from abroad. An English phone line and email, weekdays 08:00 to 17:00, and online booking.

Public records. HIRA lists 61 doctors, including 30 internal medicine specialists and 16 radiology specialists. The medicalkorea registry has an active record for the centre.

Side by side

What none of the pages answers

None of the four says whether its prices include VAT. Hanshin offers online help with results after you go home, but none of the four explains how further tests or treatment would be arranged for a visitor who has left Korea. Before booking, get these in writing:

• Which tests you will have, and why each one, based on how old you are, your history and your symptoms. Find out if any of them are tests that guideline bodies recommend against for people who have no symptoms.
• When you will have the results in a language you read, and whether the doctor will go through them with you before you fly.
• What happens if a polyp is removed or a biopsy taken, what it costs without Korean insurance, and when you can fly.
• What the price includes: sedation, VAT, extra tests on the day and copies of images.
• How to get your images and reports to your own doctor at home.

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