Korea Dialysis Facility Travel and Five-Year Household Cost Calculator

Compare up to three clinically suitable Korean dialysis facilities using actual patient quotes, round-trip travel, transport and parking, patient and companion work loss, and five-year present value.

Shared dialysis schedule

The same schedule and analysis period apply to every facility. Three sessions per week is a common hemodialysis pattern, but use the prescribed and actually booked schedule.

/week
years
%

Use 0% if present-value comparison is unnecessary.

Enter the route and quote confirmed directly with this facility.

Actual quote and time value

KRW/visit

Use the facility quote for the same treatment conditions.

KRW/visit
KRW/hr

A household scenario value, not statutory shutdown allowance.

KRW/hr

Current transport and companion profile

km
min
KRW/visit
hr/visit

Use only time actually lost from paid work because of treatment and travel.

hr/visit
hr/visit

This is the paid-work loss within total companion time.

Enter the route and quote confirmed directly with this facility.

Actual quote and time value

KRW/visit

Use the facility quote for the same treatment conditions.

KRW/visit
KRW/hr

A household scenario value, not statutory shutdown allowance.

KRW/hr

Current transport and companion profile

km
min
KRW/visit
hr/visit

Use only time actually lost from paid work because of treatment and travel.

hr/visit
hr/visit

This is the paid-work loss within total companion time.

Enter the route and quote confirmed directly with this facility.

One- and five-year household comparison

3 sessions per week and 156 per year, using a 0% annual discount rate.

Not medical advice
This is a cost-and-time scenario, not a medical recommendation. Confirm clinical fit, access care, complication response, staffing, and emergency support with the treating team first.
Work-loss cost here is a user-entered income-loss scenario. It does not calculate statutory shutdown allowance, paid leave, insurance proceeds, or legal damages.
No facility has confirmed clinical suitability. Complete the confirmation checkbox to display results.
Facility A: excluded because clinical suitability has not been confirmed.
Facility B: excluded because clinical suitability has not been confirmed.

Results appear after at least one facility is confirmed as clinically suitable.

Related calculators

A dialysis facility is more than its treatment quote

Hemodialysis is a recurring schedule rather than a one-time visit. Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency explains that treatment is commonly performed two or three times per week and that one session usually takes about four hours. Travel, check-in, waiting, meals, and recovery can extend the household time commitment well beyond the treatment chair itself.

This calculator compares up to three Korean facilities that the treating team has already found clinically suitable. It combines the patient-paid treatment quote, transport and parking, meals, and patient or companion work-loss assumptions. It also keeps five-year distance, travel time, and companion time visible instead of forcing every burden into money.

Clinical fit comes before cost

Confirm the prescribed dialysis mode, vascular-access support, complication management, staffing, testing and medication coordination, and emergency response with the treating team and each facility first. Only facilities that pass that gate belong in the cost comparison. A “Cost-only low” badge is not a medical recommendation or a quality score.

What to gather before comparing facilities

  1. Clinical confirmation: ask whether each facility can deliver the current prescription and required monitoring, then review the available HIRA hemodialysis quality information
  2. Scope-matched quote: ask every facility whether the per-session patient amount includes the same tests, medicines, injections, non-covered items, and meals
  3. Time-specific route: check the route at the actual appointment time and record round-trip distance, congestion, transfers, tolls, parking, and public-transport fares
  4. Household schedule: distinguish total treatment or companion time from the smaller portion that actually reduces paid income
  5. Future transport: model a possible shift from driving to taxi, accessible transport, or increased family accompaniment in a later year

Ask the facility

  • Whether the current prescription and access-care needs can be supported
  • Operating days, session times, holiday arrangements, and emergency process
  • The expected patient payment and separately billed non-covered items
  • Companion waiting space, parking price, and any validated discount

Record at home

  • Door-to-door time for a realistic round trip
  • Fuel, toll, taxi, transit, and parking cost per visit
  • Actual paid-work loss for the patient and companion
  • A fallback mode if the patient or family can no longer drive

Keep every input on the same scope

Dialysis facility travel calculator inputs and scope rules
InputWhat to enterScope check
Weekly sessionsThe prescribed and actually scheduled frequency from one to sevenDo not treat the three-session default as an instruction
Patient care costActual patient-paid covered and non-covered amount per sessionMatch the test, medicine, and service scope across facilities
RouteRound-trip distance and door-to-door travel timeUse the appointment time and a consistent waiting rule
Transport and parkingFuel, toll, taxi, transit, and parking per visitIf depreciation is included, apply the same method to all candidates
Work-loss timeHours that actually reduce the patient’s or companion’s paid incomeDo not automatically value every treatment or companion hour as lost income
Discount rateA zero-to-twenty-percent assumption for present-value comparisonIt is not a forecast; compare zero, three, and five percent if uncertain

Work-loss boundary: this field is a household planning assumption. It is not Korea’s statutory shutdown allowance under Labor Standards Act Article 46, paid-leave pay, motor-insurance lost earnings, or a civil-damages calculation. Confirm any legal or insurance claim from the applicable contract, policy wording, income records, and professional advice.

How the one- and five-year totals work

Step 1 · Annual visits

Annual visits equal sessions per week multiplied by 52. Three sessions per week therefore become 156 modeled visits per year. The tool does not automatically remove hospitalizations, holidays, travel, missed sessions, or temporary schedule changes.

Step 2 · Household cost per visit

Per-visit household cost equals patient-paid care plus transport and parking, meals and other costs, patient work-loss hours times the patient hourly loss, and companion work-loss hours times the companion hourly loss. Total companion hours remain a separate time metric because unpaid family time can matter even when it does not reduce wages.

Step 3 · Five-year present value

The year-t discount factor is 1 divided by (1 + annual discount rate) to the power of t minus one. Each annual cost is multiplied by that factor and added. The approach follows the common life-cycle-cost principle in NIST Handbook 135: costs at different times are compared at one base date. The calculator does not forecast Korean medical fees, inflation, fuel prices, or a change in health status.

Worked example: why a closer facility can carry value

The example button uses synthetic figures only. It assumes three sessions per week and a three-percent annual discount rate. Closer Facility A has KRW 20,000 of patient-paid care, KRW 10,000 of transport, and five patient work-loss hours per visit. Farther Facility B has a lower KRW 10,000 care quote, but KRW 30,000 transport, five patient work-loss hours, five companion hours, and four companion work-loss hours.

Synthetic five-year present-value example
Synthetic optionFive-year total PVMobility and work-loss PVExtra care-cost allowance
Closer Facility AKRW 99,342,093KRW 80,945,409KRW 100,000 per visit
Farther Facility BKRW 165,570,154KRW 154,532,143Comparison baseline

In this constructed scenario, the closer option could charge up to KRW 100,000 more per visit before its five-year mobility and work-loss saving is exhausted. That is a break-even discussion aid, not permission to ignore clinical differences or accept an unsupported quote. Re-run the case with zero, conservative, and current hourly-loss assumptions to see whether the conclusion is stable.

Model a future transport change

A household may be able to drive today but later face post-dialysis fatigue, night-driving difficulty, vehicle disposal, or a change in the companion’s availability. Enabling the transport-change scenario copies each current route into the future fields. Change only the distance, time, transport cost, or companion pattern that would differ after the selected start year.

Three useful sensitivity cases

  • Current case: the same route, vehicle, and companion arrangement continues for five years
  • Higher transport case: taxi or paid accessible transport begins in year three
  • More companion care: the route stays the same, but family accompaniment and work loss increase

Read each result for the decision it supports

Year-one nominal total

A short-term cash budget assuming the entered costs repeat for 52 weeks.

Five-year present value

A common-base-date comparison used for the cost-only ordering.

Mobility and work-loss PV

Transport, patient income loss, and companion income loss caused by location.

Distance, travel, and companion time

Long-run burdens that remain visible even when no hourly price is assigned.

When cost differences are small, give greater weight to schedule reliability, emergency response, HIRA quality information, communication, and recovery at home. When differences are large, audit the scope before acting: confirm that care quotes cover the same tests and medicines, route calculations use the same time window, and work-loss hours follow the same definition.

Korean sources and the calculator’s boundary

The KDCA hemodialysis guide supports the common two-to-three-session schedule, approximate session duration, and need for specialist management. An individual prescription can differ, so the three-session default is never an instruction.

HIRA publishes a hemodialysis appropriateness evaluation plan and facility-level results. Those materials are a starting point before a cost comparison. The calculator does not scrape a live map, import a HIRA grade, or manufacture a combined quality score.

Korea’s National Health Insurance Act Articles 41 and 44 frame covered benefits and patient cost sharing, while Medical Service Act Article 45 addresses disclosure of non-covered prices. Individual eligibility, special coverage, tests, medicines, and facility-specific non-covered items can differ. For that reason, every official price field starts at KRW 0 and requires an actual patient quote.

The present-value method references NIST Handbook 135e2025. NIST supplies a life-cycle-cost comparison method, not a Korean medical price or an official household discount rate.

Verified August 31, 2026: National Health Insurance Act current law effective January 2, 2026; Medical Service Act current law effective April 7, 2026; and Labor Standards Act current law effective August 20, 2026. Rules and facility prices can change. Recheck the current Korean text and obtain written answers before making a contract, coverage, employment, or legal decision.

Frequently asked questions

Is the closest facility always the right choice?

No. Proximity can reduce recurring travel, but prescription capability, vascular-access care, complication management, staffing, equipment, and emergency response come first.

May I keep the three-session default?

Only if it matches the treating team’s prescription and the actual booking. It is a common starting example, not individualized medical advice.

Should all four treatment hours be work-loss time?

Use only hours that actually reduce paid income. If flexible work or paid leave prevents an income reduction, also test a zero-loss case.

Why are companion time and companion work loss separate?

Total companion time measures caregiving burden. Work-loss time is the subset that reduces paid income and should not exceed total companion time.

Which discount rate is correct?

There is no universal household rate. A practical sensitivity check uses zero percent for nominal cost, then three and five percent to see whether the ordering changes.

Does KRW 0 mean the session is free?

No. The calculator does not fetch an individual quote. Zero may mean unknown, so confirm the covered and non-covered scope with the facility and official Korean sources.

Turn the numbers into better consultation questions

Keep only two or three options that have passed the clinical-fit check, and request the same written quote items from each. Verify door-to-door travel during the likely session window and ask both the patient and companion to record how the schedule affects paid work. Print the result and use it to ask: What monthly budget is needed? Can companion time be reduced? Does the closer option’s higher quote stay within the mobility break-even amount?

Final checklist

  • The treating team and candidate facility confirmed clinical suitability
  • Every care, transport, and work-loss input uses a matched scope
  • Zero values are distinguished from figures that have not yet been confirmed
  • A future transport or companion-care change has been stress-tested
  • The result is not being treated as medical advice or a statutory compensation amount