Medical travel
Medical travel to China, arranged around the appointment
We are not a hospital and we do not give medical advice. What we arrange is everything the appointment sits inside: which department to write to, what records to send and in what form, how a medical visit enters China, where to stay near that hospital, who interprets, and how many nights to leave before you fly home.
Plan a medical tripPlanning the rest of the trip?
Packages 79–299 US dollars; in-hospital coordination quoted per patient. Nothing is charged before the scope is agreed.
Six steps, in the order they happen
Records
They arrive as files, not as a parcel. We take them in and translate the pages the department reads first.
Shortlist
Two or three hospitals and departments that treat this case, and why each one is on the list.
Appointment
We write, we chase, and the date comes back confirmed in writing — the letter the visa is then checked against.
Admission
Registration, the deposit, and the consent form translated line by line before anything is signed.
The ward
The eight o'clock round, the medication changes, the discharge instructions — quoted per patient, per stay.
Home
Itemised bill, stamped certificate, an English summary that evening, fit-to-fly, and a number for thirty days.
Money and insurance, before you book
Deposit
50–100% of the estimate on admission; the rest is settled at discharge, line by line.
Paying
RMB only. Cards work at the international department; a wire before you fly beats the airport rate.
Insurance
Most insurers do not pay a Chinese hospital directly. Assume you pay, then claim: keep the itemised bill and a stamped diagnosis.
Cover
An ordinary travel policy excludes planned surgery. A medical-travel policy, 150–800 USD, covers complications, a longer stay and evacuation.
We also check accreditation when shortlisting — JCI, or DNV's DIAS with its annual audit — because an insurer abroad can verify that.
Medical packages
Priced by the arranging, never by the treatment. Three packages, each one including the one before it.
Records and shortlist
$79
For a second opinion or a check-up, before anything is booked.
- Two or three matching hospitals and departments, with the channel to reach each
- Records and scans collected here as files, and put to the department by us
- The questions to put to the doctor, written before the trip
- Three working days, one round of changes
Treatment trip
$169
The appointment booked, and the week arranged around it.
- Everything in Records and shortlist
- The appointment booked with the hospital and confirmed in writing
- Day by day around it — buffer, consult, tests, follow-up — and where to stay nearby
- Visa route checked and dated; five working days, two rounds
Full support
$299
Someone on the other end while you are here.
- Everything in Treatment trip
- An interpreter at the consultation; the answers typed up in English that day
- A call before you fly; a written plan for staying longer — visa, prescriptions, insurance
- Messages answered through the stay; seven working days, three rounds
What people come for
- Annual health check · 2 days
- Dental work · 4 days
- Second opinion on a scan · records only, no travel yet
- Heart surgery and recovery · 3 weeks
- Orthopaedic surgery and rehabilitation · 3 weeks
- Rehabilitation and traditional medicine · 1–2 weeks
All of them in Shanghai, and every one starts with a hospital that has to agree to see you first.
Read the full case: a heart operation in Shanghai, day by dayWhere our part ends
We do not diagnose, read your scans or recommend a treatment — that is a doctor's call. We take no commission from any hospital, and no share of its bill. We cannot promise an appointment, a visa or an outcome. What we do not take on: surrogacy, organ transplantation, clinical trials and unapproved drugs, and anything a Chinese hospital will not admit a foreign patient for.
Medical travel questions
Do I need a medical visa for China?
There is no separate medical visa. Treatment of up to 180 days is applied for as an S2 private-affairs visa, with an invitation letter from the Chinese hospital and proof you can pay; longer stays use S1. Visa-free entry and 240-hour transit are enough for a check-up or a consultation, not for an operation and the recovery after it. The consulate decides, not us.
Can a foreigner be treated in a Chinese hospital?
Yes, at the international department of a public Grade 3A hospital or at a private international hospital. You cannot land and be admitted: the department reads your records first, then offers a date. Finding that department is what the first package does.
Is treatment in China safe for foreigners?
The big hospitals that take foreign patients are accredited — JCI, or DNV's DIAS with a yearly audit — and accreditation is the one thing you can check from home. The friction is language and paperwork, not the theatre: consent forms, bills and discharge notes arrive in Chinese.
What does treatment in China cost?
Less than the same procedure in the United States or Western Europe, and more than a Chinese patient pays in the same building: foreigners are billed at the international department's rate. No one can quote before a department reads your records — anyone who does is guessing. Ask the hospital for an itemised estimate in writing, and treat our fee (79–299 USD) as separate from it, because it is: we take nothing from the hospital and nothing from the bill.
How long do I need to stay in China?
A check-up whose results come back in two days needs four nights. A consultation plus tests is about a week. Surgery is three weeks: a week of tests, the operation, then the recovery a surgeon will not discharge you early from. Dental work of any size runs four to seven days because the laboratory needs the gap between appointments. A plan counts nights, not days, and the nights it counts include the ones you may not use.
Does the hospital speak English, and can someone come with me?
The international department handles paperwork in English; the ward usually does not, and a companion who speaks Chinese changes the stay more than anything else in the plan. One companion is normal and hospitals allow it, though a second bed is often chargeable. An interpreter at the consultation is part of the top package; interpretation on the ward is not something we can promise, which is why the honest answer is: bring someone, or budget for an agency by the day.
Tell us about the trip
A short form. We reply within a day.