Korea Disability Assistive Device Benefit and Reapplication Calculator

Check 2026 Korean NHIS reference amounts, useful lives, conditional benefits, patient costs, reapplication reference dates and purchase procedures for 21 manual mobility, vision and posture device types.

South Korean NHIS rules for 2026 · Checked 2026-10-14 · Amount notice effective 2026-03-25

Covers 21 manual mobility, vision and posture/positioning types. Clinical suitability, replacement recognition and actual payment require NHIS confirmation.

Use the relevant separate calculator or system for hearing aids, powered wheelchairs/scooters, batteries, Medical Aid and long-term-care welfare equipment.

1. Insurance, registration and device

Insurance system

Disability registration

Ask NHIS about any pre-registration purchase exception; this tool does not decide it.

Relevant registered disability

For multiple registered disabilities, choose the one relevant to this device.

Device type

Changing device type clears its quote, history and procedure confirmations.

Statutory reference: KRW 480,000

Useful life: 60 months

Prior approval: Not required

2. Purchase date, quote and benefit rate

Purchase stage

Planned or actual purchase date

Amounts apply to purchases from 2026-03-25 through 2026-12-31. Other dates require verification of the rules then in force.

Purchase quote (KRW)

Actual quote for this device type. Separate non-covered accessories.

Product decision price (KRW)

Enter the current registered-product decision price, rather than substituting the category reference or quote.

Separate non-covered costs (KRW)

Non-covered accessories, delivery or extras excluded from the device quote. Avoid double counting.

Quote and decision-price evidence

Select Confirmed only after checking the purchase quote, extras and any applicable product decision price.

Confirmed benefit rate

Choose 100% only for a confirmed qualifying case. Price excess and non-covered extras remain self-paid.

3. Prior benefits and reapplication reference

Same-type benefit history

Check same-type records. Do not substitute the bank payment date or a remembered first-use date.

4. Before- and after-purchase procedures

Clinical and NHIS eligibility

Clinician/NHIS confirmation of specialty, test findings and detailed eligibility.

Overlap, restrictions and Medical Aid history

Confirm same-type overlap, benefit restrictions and prior Medical Aid records.

Specialist prescription

Prescription date

NHIS product registration

Check current registration, standard code and barcode.

NHIS seller registration

A pre-purchase plan lists inspection and receipts as later tasks. For an already purchased device, required documents must also be confirmed for the conditional estimate.

Benefit and reapplication worksheet

Benefit or procedure confirmation needed

Conditional estimated benefit for current inputs

Pending confirmation

This does not establish NHIS payment or an official reapplication date. Unknown or unmet conditions are not treated as a confirmed zero benefit.

Benefit base: Pending confirmation
Hypothetical benefit if all conditions are met: Pending confirmation
Hypothetical copay within base: Pending confirmation
Device price above base: Pending confirmation
Hypothetical total self-pay: Pending confirmation
Full self-pay budget before benefit confirmation: Pending confirmation

Lowest of category reference, product decision price and purchase price × confirmed rate. The hypothetical amount assumes all unmet conditions are resolved; it is not claimable payment.

Dates and reference deadlines

Reapplication reference date: Confirm history and start date
Six-month purchase reference deadline: Date unknown or exempt

Calendar months are added and missing month-end days are clamped. No holiday adjustment is applied. Post-2026 replacement dates are references under 2026 rules; the rules then in force and NHIS dates or notices control.

Procedure checklist

NHIS enrollee or dependent confirmedPending
Relevant disability registration completedPending
Registered disability type relevant to this devicePending
Clinical and NHIS eligibility criteria confirmedPending
Overlap, restrictions and Medical Aid history checkedPending
Purchase falls within 2026-03-25 to 2026-12-31Confirmed
Applicable 90% or qualifying 100% rate confirmedPending
Actual purchase and additional-cost quote confirmedPending
Current product-specific decision price enteredPending
NHIS product registration confirmedPending
NHIS seller registration confirmedPending
Confirm prior same-type benefit and official start datePending
Required specialist prescription confirmedPending
Prescription date is recorded and no later than purchasePending
Inspection-certificate submission exemptionConfirmed
Receipt, claim and required barcode photo preparedAfter purchase

Review input and evidence ledger

Device type: Manual wheelchair: standard
Insurance system: Not confirmed
Disability registration: Not confirmed
Relevant registered disability: Not confirmed
Confirmed benefit rate: Not confirmed
Purchase stage: Before-purchase plan
Planned or actual purchase date: 2026-10-14
Purchase quote: 0 KRW
Product decision price: 0 KRW
Separate non-covered costs: 0 KRW
Quote and decision-price evidence: Not confirmed
Same-type benefit history: Not confirmed
Prior useful-life start date: Not entered / not applicable
Start-date evidence: Not confirmed
Early replacement exception: No exception confirmation
Clinical and NHIS eligibility: Not confirmed
Overlap, restrictions and Medical Aid history: Not confirmed
Specialist prescription: Not confirmed
Prescription date: Not entered / not applicable
NHIS prior approval: Not confirmed
Approval notification date: Not entered / not applicable
NHIS product registration: Not confirmed
NHIS seller registration: Not confirmed
Inspection certificate after purchase: Not confirmed
Receipt, claim and required photos: Not confirmed

Fields not applicable to the selected device are excluded from checklist decisions.

National Health Insurance Act Article 51; Enforcement Rule Article 26 and Annex 7; MOHW Notice 2026-56 Annexes 5 and 6. Checked 2026-10-14

Related calculators

Check Korean NHIS assistive-device benefits before purchasing

Disability assistive devices can support mobility and vision, but a useful purchase does not by itself establish health-insurance reimbursement.
Relevant disability registration, detailed eligibility, product and seller registration, prescriptions, prior approval and inspection must be checked together.
For family members arranging a purchase, confirming the previous benefit cycle and procedure before comparing prices helps avoid losing reimbursement and supports a realistic cash budget.

This calculator covers 21 manual mobility, vision and posture/positioning device types under South Korea’s 2026 National Health Insurance rules.
It calculates a conditional benefit, price excess and self-pay including separate non-covered costs, and gives a reapplication reference date using the NHIS-confirmed start of the previous same-type useful life.
Clinical suitability is an entered clinician/NHIS confirmation, rather than a medical diagnosis or device recommendation.

Use the worksheet for the next decision

Save unresolved items and show the worksheet to the prescribing specialist, NHIS and registered seller.
Check the planned purchase date, approval notification, actual product code, applicable decision price, receipt and required photos alongside the amount.

Jurisdiction, insurance system and scope

Registered NHIS enrollees and dependents

Article 51 of the National Health Insurance Act provides the disability-assistive-device benefit framework for registered disabled enrollees and dependents.
For multiple registered disabilities, select the type relevant to the device and use confirmed detailed criteria.
Active manual wheelchairs, for example, require a particular disability category and functional criteria; registration alone is insufficient.

Separate devices and systems

Hearing aids, personal voice amplifiers, powered wheelchairs/scooters and batteries, limb prostheses, orthoses and custom corrective shoes are excluded.
Medical Aid, disability activity support and long-term-care welfare equipment use separate systems.
The seated posture-aid entry covers trunk/pelvis support only; additional supports, bilateral fittings and multiple devices require separate confirmation.

2026 reference amounts, useful lives and prior approval

These values come from MOHW Notice No. 2026-56, Annexes 5 and 6, effective 2026-03-25.
Payment estimates use purchase dates from 2026-03-25 through 2026-12-31; earlier or later purchases remain pending verification of the rules then applicable.
Some NHIS static tables retain old vision-device amounts or omit newly added types, so the current notice controls this table.

Reference amounts in KRW, useful lives in months, prior approval and evaluation for 21 Korean assistive-device types effective March 25, 2026
Device type	Reference (KRW)	Useful life (months)	Prior approval	Product evaluation
Manual wheelchair: standard	480,000	60	Not required	Required
Manual wheelchair: active	1,000,000	60	Required	Required
Manual wheelchair: tilting	800,000	60	Required	Required
Manual wheelchair: reclining	800,000	60	Required	Required
Manual wheelchair: stroller	1,500,000	60	Required	Required
Walking cane	20,000	24	Not required	Not required
Crutches	15,000	24	Not required	Not required
White cane	30,000	6	Not required	Not required
Low-vision glasses	170,000	36	Not required	Not required
Contact lens	120,000	36	Not required	Not required
Magnifier	110,000	48	Not required	Not required
Low-vision telescope	190,000	48	Not required	Not required
Ocular prosthesis	730,000	60	Not required	Not required
Seated posture aid: trunk and pelvis support only	880,000	36	Required	Required
Standing posture aid	2,200,000	36	Required	Required
Pressure-ulcer prevention cushion	250,000	36	Not required	Required
Pressure-ulcer prevention mattress	400,000	36	Not required	Required
Mobile powered lift	2,500,000	60	Required	Required
Front walker	50,000	36	Not required	Not required
Rear walker	300,000	36	Not required	Not required
Trunk-support walker	2,000,000	36	Required	Required

Product registration, product evaluation and seller registration are distinct requirements.
Ocular prostheses require registered products and sellers without product evaluation; front and rear walkers likewise require product registration without evaluation.
Do not insert an arbitrary decision price into a type that has no product-evaluation price requirement.

Input meanings and evidence levels

Purchase quote, decision price and extras

Enter the actual quote for the selected device type and separate non-covered accessories or delivery into the additional-cost field.
Avoid counting an item in both the device quote and extras.
For evaluated products, check the current NHIS product entry and price notice; the category reference amount or retail quote cannot substitute for the product decision price.

Confirmed, assumed and unknown

Select Confirmed only after checking the purchase quote, extras and applicable decision price.
A rough price is an assumption, and missing evidence remains unknown.
Select the standard 90% rate or a confirmed qualifying reduced-copay 100% rate, without inferring the latter from income or Medical Aid status.
Unknown rates and useful-life start dates are not converted into confirmed values or zero amounts.

Benefit and self-pay formulas

Find the benefit base first

Evaluated products: B = min(category reference, product decision price, purchase price)
Non-evaluated types: B = min(category reference, purchase price)
Hypothetical benefit = floor(B × confirmed rate ÷ 100)
Copay within base = B − benefit; price excess = purchase price − B
Hypothetical total self-pay = purchase price + separate extras − benefit

Annex 7, item 3 of the Enforcement Rule specifies 90% of the lowest applicable amount, or 100% for confirmed cases covered by Enforcement Decree Annex 2, item 3(d).
A 100% rate does not remove price excess or non-covered extras.
The calculator truncates hypothetical benefits to whole won as a planning display assumption; verify official payment rounding with NHIS.
Local grants, private-insurance payments and tax deductions are not automatically combined.

Reapplication reference and early replacement

The ordinary rule is one benefit per person for the same type within its useful life.
Confirm the previous device type and official useful-life start with NHIS before adding the listed number of months.
Do not assume that a bank payment date or remembered first-use date is the official start.
Earlier Medical Aid benefits may be linked when a person moves into NHIS coverage.

Calendar dates are references

Adding 60 months to 2021-10-14 for a manual wheelchair gives 2026-10-14.
A purchase date of 2026-10-13 leaves one reference day remaining.
Missing month-end days are clamped, so 2026-08-31 plus six months becomes 2027-02-28.
The tool treats the reference date itself as elapsed for planning, but NHIS period computation, the actual earliest date and notices must be checked separately.

Damage, wear, growth, bodily change or another unavoidable reason may require a replacement prescription and NHIS exception confirmation before the ordinary useful life ends.
A case under review does not establish payment.
A confirmed exception does not waive other prescriptions, registration, approval or documents.
Post-2026 replacement dates are schedules calculated under 2026 rules; recheck the notice in force at that time.

Prescription, prior approval and inspection are separate steps

Before purchase

Standard manual wheelchairs do not require prior approval, while active, tilting, reclining and stroller types do.
Trunk-support walkers, posture aids and mobile powered lifts also require prior approval.
Prepare the relevant specialist prescription and test records, and receive NHIS notification before purchasing.
The NHIS procedure guide uses a six-month purchase window from approval notification for prior-approval types, or from prescription for other prescription-required items.
Use the notification date, rather than the application date.

After purchase

Low-vision glasses, contact lenses, ocular prostheses and posture aids require inspection certificates.
Ordinary white canes, walking canes and crutches are exempt from prescription and inspection submissions; magnifiers and telescopes require prescription but are inspection-exempt.
A pre-purchase plan lists inspection and receipts as later tasks; an already purchased device requires applicable documents for the conditional payment estimate.
Prepare required standard-code/barcode photos, purchase evidence and the claim form.

Step-by-step use

Select insurance, registration and device type, then review its reference amount, useful life and approval requirement.
Enter the planned or actual purchase date, device quote, any required decision price and separate extras.
Select the confirmed rate and evidence level, then check prior same-type benefits.
Verify the official start date, clinical eligibility, restrictions, prescription, product, seller and approval.
Resolve checklist items and save or print the worksheet for the specialist, NHIS and seller.

Changing device type clears the old quote, history and procedure confirmations to avoid reusing evidence for a different product.
Money fields accept whole won and commas and commit the edited value on leaving the field.
The example uses fictional arithmetic inputs, rather than a product quotation or an actual NHIS decision.

Worked examples: benefits and price excess

Fictional standard manual wheelchair

With reference KRW 480,000, decision price KRW 450,000, purchase KRW 600,000 and extras KRW 30,000, B is KRW 450,000.
At 90%, the hypothetical benefit is KRW 405,000, within-base copay KRW 45,000 and price excess KRW 150,000.
Total self-pay is KRW 225,000.
At a confirmed 100% rate, benefit becomes KRW 450,000 and self-pay KRW 180,000 because excess and extras remain.

White cane and ocular prosthesis

A KRW 40,000 white cane uses reference KRW 30,000: 90% gives KRW 27,000 benefit and KRW 13,000 self-pay.
A prior start of 2026-04-14 gives a six-month reference of 2026-10-14.
An ocular prosthesis at KRW 800,000 uses reference KRW 730,000: 90% gives KRW 657,000 benefit and KRW 143,000 self-pay.
Unconfirmed ocular product/seller registration, prescription or inspection keeps this hypothetical figure from becoming the conditional payment estimate.

Practical situations and purchasing cautions

Budget for full self-pay while reimbursement is unresolved

For a replacement purchase, check the previous benefit record first and ask whether a new prescription and approval are required.
For an already purchased device, enter the actual purchase and notification dates and review the six-month window, seller/product registration and documents.
A Confirmed checklist item reflects the user’s statement; it does not mean the calculator has queried NHIS records.
Before benefit confirmation, also budget for the entire purchase quote plus extras.
Pending or unmet conditions do not establish a denial or zero payment, and a hypothetical figure cannot retroactively cure an earlier procedural failure.

Do not mark an assumed notification or start date as confirmed.
The calendar helper handles month ends and leap years but does not extend a deadline for holidays or override an individual notice.
Detailed medical criteria, current registered prices, replacement exceptions, documents and official period computation must be confirmed with the responsible institution.

Frequently asked questions

Does disability registration cover every assistive device?

No.
The type must relate to the registered disability and satisfy the detailed clinical and NHIS criteria.
A retail device is not automatically a benefit product.
Check product and seller registration, prescription, prior approval and inspection requirements before buying.

Will I always receive 90% of the category reference amount?

The benefit base is the lowest of the category reference, applicable product decision price and actual purchase price.
Product decision price is excluded for types that do not require product evaluation.
The standard 90% or confirmed qualifying 100% rate applies to that base.

Do ocular prostheses require a product decision price?

Annex 6 requires ocular-prosthesis product registration without product evaluation.
Use the lower of KRW 730,000 and the purchase price.
NHIS product and seller registration, an ophthalmologist prescription and inspection still need confirmation.

Can I reapply immediately after five years?

First check same-type benefit history and the official useful-life start date with NHIS.
This tool adds calendar months to produce a reference date, rather than establishing the official earliest application date.
Prior Medical Aid benefits, overlap restrictions, current medical criteria and approvals may also matter.

Does loss or damage automatically allow early replacement?

No.
For damage, wear, growth, bodily change or another unavoidable reason, a treating clinician must determine replacement need and issue the appropriate prescription, with NHIS confirmation.
Selecting Under review keeps the payment estimate pending.

Are white canes exempt from prescription and inspection?

Ordinary white-cane claims are exempt from those submissions.
Registration, relevance, history and purchase evidence still matter.
An early-replacement exception separately requires a replacement prescription and NHIS confirmation.

Can a purchase before disability registration qualify?

Annex 7 permits certain purchases within six months before registration when based on the relevant specialist prescription.
Prior-approval device types and other exclusions prevent applying this exception universally.
The tool does not decide a pre-registration exception; ask NHIS about the individual case.

Does Pending confirmation mean my benefit is zero?

No.
It means the estimate is withheld because information or procedures remain unresolved.
A hypothetical benefit assumes every condition is satisfied and does not establish claimable payment.
Until payment is confirmed, also plan for the full quote plus separate non-covered costs.

Official sources, verification date and next action

Current laws and notices were checked directly through the National Law Information OPEN API on 2026-10-14.
The Act’s Article 51 is effective 2026-10-08; the current Enforcement Rule’s Article 26 is effective 2026-09-28; Annex 7 was amended 2026-03-25.
Amount and useful-life Notice No. 2026-56 is effective 2026-03-25.
When notices or product lists change, recheck amounts, useful lives, evaluation/registration, prescription/approval/inspection, qualifying 100% rates and actual useful-life dates.

National Health Insurance Act, Article 51 · MST 285273 · 2026-10-08
NHIS Enforcement Rule, Article 26 and Annex 7 · MST 290599 · 2026-09-28
Detailed disability-assistive-device benefit rules · 2026-56 · 2026-03-25 · Annexes 1, 2, 5, 6
Registered benefit products and decision prices · 2026-57 · 2026-03-25
NHIS device-specific benefit procedures · Checked 2026-10-14

Prepare a prescription and benefit consultation

Save or print current inputs and unresolved conditions, then confirm approval before purchase and the actual patient share.
For a different system, use its separate requirements and cost calculator.

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