Estimate a Korea MRgFUS budget for essential tremor using editable SZ630 procedure and MRI-guidance quotes, insurer-confirmed payment and a reserve rate.
Enter Korea-related chronic care, eldercare, therapy, procedure, fertility, diagnostic, or medical tourism assumptions. Results are simplified planning estimates.
Procedure gross quote
₩15,412,000
Insurance or support amount
₩0
Estimated self-pay with reserve
₩16,953,200
Monthly reserve target
₩2,825,533
6 month plan
This English page explains Korea essential-tremor MR-guided focused ultrasound planning. SZ630 is non-covered. One Seoul Asan Medical Center 2026 disclosure lists the procedure at KRW 7,872,000 to KRW 15,860,000 and a separate magnetic-resonance guidance row at KRW 3,546,000; these are one hospital’s prices, not a national average, and the hospital quote must confirm whether the rows are additive. The Korean reassessment gives a conditional recommendation only for medication-refractory essential tremor and classifies Parkinson disease and other movement disorders as having insufficient evidence. Private indemnity payment must be confirmed by the insurer, and reimbursed medical expenses are excluded before estimating the Korean employee medical-expense tax credit. Sources and law were verified July 23, 2026. This is a planning estimate, not medical advice, candidacy assessment, insurer decision or tax result.
A Korean quote for magnetic-resonance-guided focused ultrasound is not one universal package price.
The bill may separate the non-covered brain procedure, magnetic-resonance guidance, covered patient charges for consultations or tests, additional non-covered drugs or services, and costs outside the hospital such as transport, lodging, a caregiver or time away from work.
Reading only the main procedure row can therefore understate the cash needed, while adding two rows that are already bundled can overstate it.
This guide is for people discussing MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound, usually shortened to MRgFUS, for medication-refractory essential tremor in South Korea.
It explains Korean non-covered code SZ630, one hospital's 2026 public price rows, the Korean evidence boundary, private indemnity insurance input, and the employee medical-expense tax-credit estimate.
The official sources and legal text were checked on July 23, 2026.
The calculator does not determine diagnosis, MRgFUS candidacy, likely tremor improvement, neurological risk, recurrence, or whether treatment on one or two sides is permissible.
A Korean functional-neurosurgery team must review the diagnosis, medication history, CT, MRI, skull characteristics, implanted devices, other conditions and individual goals.
The hospital quote, insurer decision and Korean year-end tax record override every estimate shown here.
The Korean National Health Insurance Service non-covered information page describes MRgFUS as a technique that uses magnetic-resonance imaging to identify a brain target and converges high-intensity ultrasound energy from many directions to create an irreversible lesion at that target.
It is often described as incisionless because no scalp incision or implanted stimulation lead is required, but incisionless does not mean non-invasive in its biological effect.
The intended brain lesion cannot simply be switched off after it is created.
Korea University Anam Hospital describes an awake, feedback-based process and gives a general duration of approximately two to four hours, but actual preparation and procedure time varies by patient and provider.
It also explains that skull characteristics can affect energy delivery and that treatment may not proceed as expected in every patient.
The calculator therefore asks whether CT and MRI review has occurred but does not invent a skull-density threshold or pass-fail score.
The NHIS page reports the Korean National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency reassessment as a conditional recommendation for patients with essential tremor that has not responded to medication.
The same source classifies the evidence for Parkinson disease and other movement disorders as insufficient.
A symptom label such as hand tremor is therefore not enough to place someone within the conditional recommendation.
| Entered situation | Published evidence category | What still needs review |
|---|---|---|
| Medication-refractory essential tremor | Conditional recommendation | Diagnosis, medication record, CT, MRI and individual risk |
| Essential tremor adequately controlled by medication | Does not match the stated condition | Medication response and need for an intervention |
| Parkinson-related tremor | Evidence insufficient | Disease-specific alternatives and evidence |
| Other movement disorder or diagnosis pending | Evidence insufficient | Movement-disorder specialist diagnosis first |
Matching the diagnosis and medication-response description does not guarantee technical feasibility, safety or benefit.
Skull characteristics, MRI safety, symptom distribution, other neurological findings and patient priorities still require specialist review.
A calculator result must never be used to bypass that assessment.
HIRA lists MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound brain surgery under non-covered classification Jo-630 and code SZ630.
The HIRA notice page cites Ministry of Health and Welfare Notice 2018-50 with effect from April 1, 2018.
The main non-covered amount is not reduced by applying an ordinary NHIS copayment percentage, the serious-disease special-registration rate, or the covered-benefit out-of-pocket ceiling.
Consultations, tests, admission and medicines around the procedure can still have their own covered or non-covered status.
| Public row | Published minimum | Published maximum | Calculator treatment |
|---|---|---|---|
| SZ630 procedure or surgery fee | KRW 7,872,000 | KRW 15,860,000 | Editable midpoint start of KRW 11,866,000 |
| Magnetic-resonance guidance fee | KRW 3,546,000 | KRW 3,546,000 | Separate editable start |
| One-session simple sum | KRW 11,418,000 | KRW 19,406,000 | Reference only until inclusion is confirmed |
The procedure row was updated on February 5, 2026 and states that materials are included and drugs are excluded.
The separate magnetic-resonance guidance row shows KRW 3,546,000 and was updated on January 1, 2026.
These are rows from one hospital, not a Korean national average, a regulated tariff, or a promise that every patient at that hospital will pay the same amount.
The detailed Korean calculator keeps the procedure and guidance amounts separate because the hospital publishes separate rows.
Ask the quoting hospital whether magnetic-resonance guidance is additional or already included in its procedure package.
If it is already included, enter zero in the separate guidance field rather than adding it again.
Planned sessions are multiplied by the procedure quote and separately by the guidance quote.
The two results are added only after the user checks the hospital's inclusion structure.
Covered patient charges and other non-covered medical lines are added to the core amount.
This is the ceiling used when the calculator limits an entered insurance payment.
Recovery living costs such as transport, lodging, caregiver help and income interruption are added to medical out-of-pocket spending.
They remain in the cash plan but outside the medical-expense tax-credit base.
The insurer-confirmed expected payment and incremental tax-credit estimate are subtracted from gross cash need.
The user-selected variation percentage is then added and subtracted to create a reserve range.
The procedure midpoint of KRW 11,866,000 plus guidance of KRW 3,546,000 produces a one-session core non-covered amount of KRW 15,412,000.
With gross salary of KRW 50,000,000, no other eligible medical spending, no insurance payment and an uncapped tax group, the 3% threshold is KRW 1,500,000 and the incremental 15% credit estimate is KRW 2,086,800.
With no recovery living cost, the resulting net burden is KRW 13,325,200 and a 10% reserve range is KRW 11,992,680 to KRW 14,657,720.
Ask for the SZ630 procedure fee and the magnetic-resonance guidance fee separately.
Confirm which materials and drugs each row includes.
Request covered and non-covered status for consultations, CT, MRI, blood tests, admission, room and medicines.
Ask which pre-procedure tests are already included.
Confirm whether the estimate is for one treatment side and one session or the complete proposed plan.
Identify follow-up, rehabilitation and repeat-imaging costs.
Non-covered status does not by itself prove whether a Korean private indemnity policy will pay for MRgFUS or how much it will pay.
Contract date, policy generation, non-covered riders, treatment-purpose review, exclusions, deductibles, annual limits and submitted evidence can all change the result.
The detailed calculator intentionally avoids a default reimbursement rate and accepts only an expected payment confirmed with the insurer.
The calculator caps the entered insurance payment at medical out-of-pocket spending because insurance reimbursement cannot reduce the medical cost below zero in the planning model.
It then removes that reimbursed portion before estimating the Korean medical-expense tax credit.
Article 59-4 of the Korean Income Tax Act generally applies a 15% medical-expense tax credit to eligible expenditure above the employee's 3% gross-salary threshold.
Medical spending for the employee, a person aged 65 or older, a disabled person and other statutory uncapped categories can be treated differently from ordinary dependants.
For the ordinary-family group, the calculator applies the KRW 7,000,000 annual eligible-expense cap.
Article 118-5 of the Enforcement Decree excludes amounts compensated by indemnity medical insurance from deductible medical expenses.
Recovery living costs are also kept outside the calculator's medical-tax base.
If gross salary is entered as zero, the calculator returns a zero employee tax-credit estimate because it does not have a wage-income threshold on which to base the calculation.
Actual relief can be lower because eligibility, who paid the bill, family status, other expenses, insurance payments and available calculated tax all matter.
The hospital receipt and insurance-payment record should be checked against the year-end settlement record or reviewed with a Korean tax professional.
The Korean reassessment summary states that MRgFUS was not shown to be superior to deep brain stimulation for essential tremor.
DBS involves implanted leads and a pulse generator and has surgical risks that include intracranial bleeding and infection, while its stimulation can be adjusted after implantation.
MRgFUS avoids an implanted device but creates an irreversible lesion, so the financial and clinical trade-offs are structurally different.
Separate SZ630, magnetic-resonance guidance, CT, MRI, admission, drugs and follow-up.
Confirm the treatment side and whether the quote covers one session or a broader plan.
Separate surgery and admission, leads, pulse generator, programming visits, battery strategy and later replacement.
Ask how Korean benefit rules apply to the individual diagnosis rather than importing an MRgFUS assumption.
The optional DBS field in the detailed calculator only subtracts one patient-specific quote from the entered MRgFUS medical amount.
It does not assume equal effectiveness, equal indication, equal laterality, equal long-term follow-up or automatic DBS coverage.
Adding the one-hospital procedure minimum and guidance row gives KRW 11,418,000, while adding the procedure maximum gives KRW 19,406,000.
This is arithmetic on two public rows and not a sample of patient bills.
The staged option doubles only the entered per-session procedure and guidance amounts.
It does not decide that bilateral treatment, retreatment or any particular interval is medically authorised or suitable.
An insurance payment lowers cash burden and also lowers medical expenditure eligible for tax-credit estimation.
Subtracting full insurance and a tax credit calculated on the pre-insurance amount would count the same relief twice.
The ordinary-family selection caps eligible medical expenditure at KRW 7,000,000.
If other eligible spending has already used that cap, this procedure may add little or no tax credit.
The Korean public information summarises neurological and physical adverse events in essential-tremor studies as generally temporary and mild, but that summary does not predict an individual patient's experience.
Ask specifically about gait, balance, sensation, weakness, speech, swallowing and any possibility of persistent symptoms.
Existing symptoms should be documented before treatment so that later changes can be assessed accurately.
The current HIRA and NHIS pages identify MR-guided high-intensity focused ultrasound brain surgery under SZ630 as non-covered.
Related consultations, tests, admission and medicines can have separate benefit status.
It is an editable starting example made from one hospital's procedure midpoint of KRW 11,866,000 plus its separate guidance row of KRW 3,546,000.
It is not a national average or a confirmed individual quote.
No.
The calculator separates it because the source hospital publishes a separate row, but the actual quoting hospital's inclusion structure controls.
Enter zero if guidance is already included in the procedure quote.
No.
The Korean reassessment summary places Parkinson disease and other movement disorders in an insufficient-evidence category rather than extending the essential-tremor conditional recommendation to them.
No.
It describes an evidence boundary for medication-refractory essential tremor, while technical feasibility, MRI safety, individual risk and final treatment choice still require specialist assessment.
Only use the two-session option as a financial scenario after discussing the clinical plan.
The input does not establish bilateral eligibility, treatment interval, authorisation or medical necessity.
Insurance relief is subtracted first because indemnity reimbursement is excluded from eligible medical spending under the Enforcement Decree.
The calculator then estimates only the tax-credit increase on the remaining medical amount.
No.
It is an estimate for an eligible Korean employee's year-end settlement and depends on actual records, family status, other expenses and available calculated tax.
The following official pages were checked on July 23, 2026 to align the code, evidence boundary, public reference rows and tax formula.
Hospital prices and Korean law can change, so recheck the live source before consultation, payment, an insurance claim or year-end settlement.
Confirm the diagnosis and medication response first, then replace every public reference with the hospital's SZ630, guidance, covered and non-covered lines.
Add the insurer-confirmed amount and recovery cash so the same itemised plan can be discussed with the specialist, hospital billing office, insurer and Korean tax reviewer without hiding assumptions.