Budget for home nursing after hospital discharge
This calculator organizes a physician-directed home nursing plan and the medical institution’s quote into a household budget in South Korea.
Knowing the basic fee for one visit does not necessarily tell you the full monthly cost.
Procedures, tests, drugs, separately billed supplies, non-covered items and an initial extra can change the amount your family needs to prepare.
Compare two monthly visit plans over the same number of months, with separate recurring, first-month and total-period figures.
Both visit counts should come from discussions with the clinician; this tool does not prescribe a nursing frequency or recommend treatment.
The aim is to reconcile the quoted scope with the household budget.
Korean rules and KRW amounts apply, even when you use the English page.
When this is useful
- A visit schedule has been discussed after discharge, but no complete monthly quote includes procedures and supplies.
- Different family members pay for recurring visits and a monthly purchase of materials.
- You need to separate a one-time initial extra from the ongoing monthly bill.
Three services with different billing systems
Medical institution home nursing
Nursing outside the institution follows a physician’s or Korean medicine physician’s referral and prescriptions where required.
This page organizes the institution’s basic nursing visit fee and separately quoted patient costs.
Physician home visits
For a doctor visiting the patient and a comparison with clinic travel, use the physician home visit cost calculator.
Do not substitute that program’s fees for a nursing visit fee.
Long-term care visiting nursing
For long-term care grades and home-care benefit limits, use the long-term care copay simulator.
The National Health Insurance percentages on this page cannot simply be transferred to that program.
Services delivered at the same home may involve different professionals, prescriptions and reimbursement systems.
Confirm the exact name of the service you booked before comparing fee schedules.
This prevents a superficially similar visiting service from becoming the wrong basis for your budget.
Is the quote a covered total or a patient charge?
Covered total multiplied by a share
Use this format when the amount includes both insurer and patient shares.
For example, a covered total of KRW 70,000 with a confirmed 20% share produces KRW 14,000 for the patient per unit.
KRW 70,000 is a fictional teaching amount, not a national basic visit tariff.
Direct patient charge
Choose this format when the institution has already told you how much the patient pays.
Entering KRW 14,000 and applying 20% again would understate the bill, so no percentage is applied in direct mode.
Medical Aid and other insurance categories accept provider-confirmed patient charges only.
The basic visit fee is always entered per visit.
Procedures, tests and drugs, materials, and non-covered charges can be entered per visit or as a fixed monthly amount.
If procedures differ across visits, you can enter the provider-confirmed patient total for that month as a fixed monthly amount.
Check whether that same total applies to both A and B; if the treatment scope differs, calculate the two complete quotes separately.
Enter non-covered and fully patient-funded items as actual patient charges.
Do not put supplies already included in a package into both the materials and non-covered rows.
Changing an insurance category or quote format clears the affected amounts so a covered total is not silently reinterpreted as a patient charge.
Use the new quote’s basis when entering the replacement figures.
Checking the Korean patient share in 2026
Article 2 of the Notice on Special Cases for Calculating Patient Copayments establishes the relationship between the general 20% home nursing share and registered special cases.
The relevant 5% serious-condition share under Article 4 and 10% rare or severe intractable-condition share under Article 5 require checks of the treated condition and applicable registration period.
Article 2 and Annex 1 distinguish situations such as nursing for an unrelated condition.
Having a registration certificate is therefore insufficient to apply one reduced rate to every item.
Confirm each item separately
Even if the basic visit fee has a confirmed 5% share, separately entered materials or treatment for another condition need their own check.
For other reductions, exemptions or selective-benefit rates, enter the institution’s confirmed percentage or use the direct patient charge.
The fields accept 0% and 100%; accepting a number does not establish eligibility for that rate.
Provider type identifies the source of the quote.
Selecting a tertiary/general hospital, hospital, clinic or public health medical center does not automatically insert a national tariff or change a patient share.
Use the amount confirmed for the institution, billing code, visit circumstances and included services.
Monthly, first-month and period formulas
Calculation sequence
- Patient amount per unit = covered total × confirmed percentage ÷ 100, or the direct patient amount entered.
- Monthly line cost = patient amount per unit × monthly visits; a fixed monthly line is included once.
- Monthly total = basic visit fee + procedures/tests/drugs + materials + non-covered/full patient charges.
- First month = monthly total + the one-time extra, if the plan has visits.
- Period total = monthly total × months + the one-time extra once.
- Monthly difference = plan B monthly total − plan A monthly total.
Each percentage-based unit charge is rounded to a whole KRW before multiplying by the number of visits.
This is a budget convention, not a reproduction of every provider’s claim grouping or truncation practice.
At zero visits, the basic fee, per-visit rows and initial extra become zero, but a fixed monthly materials amount remains.
A purchase already planned for that month is not automatically canceled just because visits are canceled.
Fictional example: 8 versus 12 visits per month
This example illustrates arithmetic; it is neither an actual hospital fee nor a recommended visit schedule.
Assume the basic covered fee is KRW 70,000 per visit at 20%, procedures are KRW 15,000 per visit at 20%, and fixed monthly materials are KRW 50,000 at a separately confirmed 10%.
Non-covered items cost KRW 2,000 per visit, with an additional KRW 7,000 patient charge in the first month only.
Fictional patient-cost comparison for 8 and 12 nursing visits per month| Item | A: 8 visits | B: 12 visits |
|---|
| Monthly basic visit share | KRW 112,000 | KRW 168,000 |
| Monthly procedure share | KRW 24,000 | KRW 36,000 |
| Fixed monthly material share | KRW 5,000 | KRW 5,000 |
| Monthly non-covered charges | KRW 16,000 | KRW 24,000 |
| Monthly total | KRW 157,000 | KRW 233,000 |
| First month including extra | KRW 164,000 | KRW 240,000 |
| Three-month total | KRW 478,000 | KRW 706,000 |
The monthly difference is KRW 76,000.
The fixed KRW 5,000 material share is identical in both plans, and the KRW 7,000 initial extra is added once across the three months.
Changing visits to zero leaves only KRW 5,000 of monthly materials, giving KRW 15,000 over three months.
Loading the example leaves every confirmation unchecked; replace its figures with the actual provider quote before confirming them.
How to use the quote and export the checklist
- Obtain the service name, provider details, physician-directed plan and itemized quote from the home nursing office.
- Select insurance and provider type, enter the monthly visits for A/B, and choose how many months repeat the same assumptions.
- Distinguish covered totals from patient charges, and confirm each item’s amount, frequency and applicable share.
- Check whether the basic fee already includes initial surcharges; enter only a nonduplicated additional patient amount.
- Review the unconfirmed list, including zero-cost items, before checking their confirmation boxes.
- Download the CSV or print the table, then ask the institution about missing items, duplication and prescription renewals.
Editing an amount, frequency or percentage clears that item’s confirmation.
This prevents a previously verified quote from being mistaken for a newly edited assumption.
No personal health identifiers are needed; the download is generated from the current inputs on your device.
The exported table includes the insurance and provider type, input formats, rates, frequencies, confirmation status and rule dates.
Interpreting the result for a family budget
Recurring cost versus first-month cash
The monthly total describes repeating the same conditions.
Use the first-month figure to prepare payment if an initial extra applies.
When relatives share costs, separating recurring payments and the one-time amount helps prevent double reimbursement.
A negative or zero difference
If B contains fewer visits, the B-minus-A difference may be negative.
If all relevant costs are fixed monthly, changing visits may produce no difference.
That reflects the entered costs; it does not establish equivalent clinical outcomes for the two plans.
Supplies may be concentrated early in care, or tests may occur only in certain months.
When months differ, set the period to one month and calculate each month using its own quote.
Once receipts arrive, compare actual spending with the planned figures to improve the next month’s estimate.
If the treatment scope in B differs, obtain its own quote rather than assuming a visit-count change captures all costs.
Prescription validity and calculation limits
A 12-month budget is not a 12-month prescription
For the relevant prescribed acts under Article 24(4) of the Medical Service Act Enforcement Rule, prescription validity is up to 90 days from the prescription date.
The calculator’s maximum of 12 months is a budgeting horizon; it does not extend one prescription for a year.
Check reassessment, renewals, tariff changes and registration dates when planning a longer period.
This tool does not determine the patient’s clinical condition, home nursing eligibility, covered-service approval, private insurance payment or patient copay-ceiling refunds.
It does not apply an old 96-visits-per-year statement or a nurse workload standard as a current patient allowance.
It also does not automatically add transport, night, weekend or age-based surcharges.
Confirm the applicable visit circumstances and itemized billing with the institution.
The CSV and printed result are planning documents, not official bills.
Do not reduce prescribed visits based solely on a cost difference.
The institution’s final charge can differ because of coverage, claim grouping, rounding and non-covered items.
The input limits of 0–62 monthly visits and 1–12 months are software limits, not insurance entitlements.
Frequently asked questions
Does the calculator automatically know the basic nursing fee?
No institution tariff is selected automatically.
Ask the home nursing office for the quote that matches its provider type, visit circumstances and included services.
Does cancer special-case registration make every item 5%?
Registration alone does not give every item a 5% share.
Confirm the treated condition, applicable dates and each billing item before applying the rate.
How do I enter Medical Aid?
Select Medical Aid and enter actual provider-confirmed patient charges.
National Health Insurance percentages are not automatically transferred to Medical Aid.
Are supplies bought once a month multiplied by visits?
Choose fixed monthly for that row so the amount is included once per month.
Also check that the same supplies are not included in another per-visit figure.
Why is the result nonzero when there are no visits?
Fixed monthly costs remain even with zero visits.
If a purchase was actually canceled, edit its fixed monthly amount rather than assuming it disappears.
Can I plan 12 months with a 90-day prescription?
You can model a longer budget, but prescription renewals and price checks are needed.
The result does not extend prescription validity or approve continued treatment.
Where do I put an extra charged only at the start?
Enter the nonduplicated extra patient amount in the one-time field.
It is included only in the first month of a plan with visits, not multiplied by all months.
Can I pay the displayed amount while items remain unconfirmed?
The displayed number is a conditional budget, and zero does not confirm free care.
Ask the provider about the unconfirmed CSV items and prescription before relying on the estimate.
Official sources and rule dates
Rules checked on September 12, 2026 (2026-09-12).
The current statutes, notice details and Annex 1 were retrieved directly through the Korean National Law Information OPEN API.
Recheck fees and applicable periods whenever a new institutional quote is issued.
- Medical Service Act Enforcement Rule, Article 24: ID 007863, MST 286963, effective June 12, 2026 (2026-06-12). Referral, nursing qualifications, prescriptions and the 90-day validity rule.
- National Health Insurance Act Enforcement Decree, Article 19: ID 002813, MST 283469, effective February 19, 2026 (2026-02-19). The underlying patient-cost framework.
- Notice on Special Cases for Calculating Patient Copayments, Articles 2, 4, 5 and Annex 1: notice 2026-162, serial 2100000283320, effective July 31, 2026 (2026-07-31). Relevant 20%, 5% and 10% shares and condition-specific distinctions.
- Home Care Nurses Association fee information: a reference for basic nursing visit fees and procedure/material charges.
This calculator does not automatically apply the table’s institution-specific amounts.
Take the visit plan and cost table to the nursing office
Ask about services included in the basic fee, procedure/material coverage, the special-case period for the treated condition, initial extras and prescription renewal.
If family members heard different explanations, collect questions around the same itemized table.
After replacing assumptions with the institution’s confirmed figures, keep the first-month payment separate from recurring costs in the family budget.
Enter the plan and prepare a checklist