Korea Lung Transplant Cost Calculator

Plan a Korean single- or bilateral-lung transplant from a patient-payment or itemized hospital quote, then model V277 at 10%, five-year registration, long-term follow-up, confirmed relief, and the medical-expense tax credit.

Plan from a Korean transplant-center quote

Keep a patient-payment quote separate from an itemized covered total so V277 is never applied twice.

1. Surgery quote basis

Use patient-payment mode for a final patient estimate. Use itemized mode only when the covered total before copay is known.

The code changes the consultation label only; the calculator never doubles a quote.

KRW

The KRW 35M default is the midpoint of Seoul Asan Medical Center’s published KRW 30M–40M range; its fee composition and reference date are not stated.

Patient-payment mode treats the quote as already reduced. V277 is not multiplied again, and any non-covered surgery cost already inside the quote stays included.
2. V277 and follow-up years
years

Enter 0–5 from the registration record, not five automatically after every visit.

years
KRW

Add covered medicines, drug-level tests, visits, procedures, and readmissions not already inside the surgery quote.

KRW
KRW
KRW
KRW
%

The 60% default is a simplified tertiary-hospital comparator, not a claim quote.

3. First-year household cash need
KRW

Tracked outside medical cost, insurance relief, and the medical tax credit.

weeks
KRW
4. Confirmed relief and tax scenario
The calculator does not guess an NHI ceiling or private-policy percentage. Enter only amounts confirmed for this patient and avoid double counting.
KRW
KRW
KRW
KRW
KRW

Use the amount after insurance and other reimbursements.

Year-1 household cost after confirmed relief and estimated tax credit

KRW 29,975,000

5-year nominal plan KRW 29,975,000

Year-1 calculation

Q8102 · patient-payment quote

Surgery-through-discharge patient cost
KRW 35,000,000
Post-discharge covered copay
KRW 0
Additional non-covered medical cost
KRW 0
Medical cost before relief
KRW 35,000,000
Confirmed NHI ceiling refund
− KRW 0
Confirmed insurance payment
− KRW 0
Confirmed support amount
− KRW 0
Caregiver, travel, lodging, and income interruption
KRW 0
Incremental medical tax credit
− KRW 5,025,000
Effective year-1 cost
KRW 29,975,000

Published range check

within the published range

KRW 30,000,000 – KRW 40,000,000

Nominal V277 saving

KRW 0

Modeled covered totals only

Year-2 planning cost

KRW 0

No future relief or tax modeled

Annual projection

Annual V277 status, covered copay, medical cost, and final lung transplant planning cost
YearRateCovered copayMedical costFinal cost
1V277 10%KRW 0KRW 35,000,000KRW 29,975,000
2V277 10%KRW 0KRW 0KRW 0
3V277 10%KRW 0KRW 0KRW 0
4V277 10%KRW 0KRW 0KRW 0
5V277 10%KRW 0KRW 0KRW 0

Read before using the result

  • Seoul Asan Medical Center’s published KRW 30–40 million range does not identify a reference date or separate the covered total, final patient payment, and included non-covered charges. This calculator uses it only as a patient-payment planning reference.
  • V277 at 10% applies only to registered, directly related covered inpatient and outpatient lung-transplant care during the registration period. It does not automatically reduce non-covered, selective-benefit, full-self-pay, or unrelated care.
  • This calculator does not assess transplant candidacy, medical urgency, waiting-list priority, donor-organ allocation, surgical method, or survival.
  • The long-range projection holds the entered nominal amounts and 2026 rules constant. It does not forecast future fees, medicines, inflation, income, or policy changes.
  • Patient-payment mode assumes the quoted amount already reflects patient cost and therefore does not multiply it by V277 again. Switch to itemized mode only when the covered total before copay is known.
  • The projection stays within the entered V277 registration period.
  • No NHI ceiling refund, insurance payment, or support amount is assumed unless you enter a confirmed figure.
  • The medical-expense tax credit is a simplified incremental estimate: 15% of eligible spending above 3% of gross salary. Reimbursed medical cost and caregiver, travel, lodging, and income interruption are excluded, and the usable credit can be lower because of final tax liability.

Related calculators

Start by identifying what the Korean hospital quote means

A published lung-transplant figure in the tens of millions of won does not tell you whether a 10% special-case copay should be applied again.
The calculation changes completely depending on whether the number is the covered total before the statutory copay or an amount the patient is expected to prepare after coverage and non-covered charges are considered.
This calculator therefore separates a patient-payment quote from an itemized covered-total quote.

Seoul Asan Medical Center publishes a planning range of about KRW 30,000,000 to KRW 40,000,000 from lung-transplant surgery through discharge.
The page does not state a reference date or split that amount into covered total, final patient payment, and non-covered charges.
The calculator uses KRW 35,000,000, the midpoint, only as a patient-payment planning reference and expects you to replace it with the transplant center’s current quote.

Q8101, Q8102, and V277 under the 2026 rules

Korea 2026 lung transplant procedure codes and special-case copays
CategoryCodeCovered copayCalculator treatment
Single-lung transplantationQ810110% with registered V277Enter the hospital quote once
Bilateral lung transplantationQ810210% with registered V277Do not double the quote merely because it is bilateral
Combined heart-lung transplantationQ8103Confirm separatelyOutside this calculator’s scope
Directly related lung-transplant careV27710%Initial five years, conditional re-registration

Article 5 and Annex 4-2 of Korea’s Standards for Special Cases of Copayment expressly list “lung transplantation and directly related inpatient and outpatient care” under identifier V277 at a 10% covered copay.
Do not import the heart-transplant V192 rule of 5% for up to 60 days into a lung-only transplant calculation.
V277 does not reduce non-covered care, selective benefits, full-self-pay items, or unrelated treatment to 10%.

Choose the quote mode before entering a number

Patient-payment quote

Use this mode when the center describes the figure as the amount a patient should prepare or as the cost from surgery through discharge without an itemized covered-total breakdown.
The calculator treats the amount as already reduced to a patient payment and carries it into year 1 unchanged.
It does not multiply that quote by V277 again, preventing a tenfold understatement.

Itemized covered-total quote

Use this mode when an itemized estimate shows the covered total including both the NHI share and the patient share before the statutory copay.
The calculator multiplies that covered total by 10% with active V277, or by the ordinary 20% inpatient comparator when V277 is off, and then adds non-covered and full-self-pay charges in full.
Do not enter an amount already paid as though it were the covered total.

The Q8101 or Q8102 selector identifies the procedure for the planning record; it is not a price multiplier.
A real bilateral quote already reflects the operation, ICU course, materials, and length of stay, so the model never doubles it automatically.
Q8103 combined heart-lung transplantation follows a different clinical and billing inquiry and is deliberately excluded.

Calculation sequence

Year-1 medical cost

In patient-payment mode, the formula is surgery-through-discharge patient quote plus post-discharge covered total multiplied by the applicable rate, plus post-discharge non-covered medical cost.
In itemized mode, the formula is surgery covered total multiplied by the applicable rate, plus surgery non-covered cost, plus post-discharge covered total multiplied by the applicable rate, plus post-discharge non-covered cost.
Active V277 uses 10%; the simplified no-V277 comparison uses 20% for surgery admission and the ordinary outpatient rate entered by the user for follow-up.

Confirmed relief and household cash need

The model deducts a confirmed NHI out-of-pocket ceiling refund, insurer-confirmed payment, and confirmed public or private support sequentially, never below zero.
It then adds caregiver, travel, family lodging, and income interruption calculated as recovery weeks multiplied by weekly income loss.
It does not guess an income tier, an NHI ceiling, or a private-policy reimbursement percentage.

Incremental medical-expense tax credit

Under Income Tax Act Article 59-4, the simplified model applies 15% to eligible unreimbursed medical spending above 3% of annual gross salary.
Ordinary dependent medical spending is subject to the KRW 7,000,000 base cap, while the taxpayer, persons age 65 or older, persons with disabilities, registered serious-condition patients, and other statutory groups can use the no-base-cap category.
Existing eligible spending is entered so the result shows only the incremental credit created by this lung-transplant scenario.

Worked examples

Example 1: plan from the published midpoint

Assume a KRW 35,000,000 patient-payment quote, no additional follow-up or non-covered charge, no confirmed reimbursement, KRW 50,000,000 gross salary, and the no-KRW-7-million-cap tax category.
The simplified incremental tax credit is 15% of KRW 35,000,000 minus the KRW 1,500,000 salary threshold, or KRW 5,025,000.
The resulting year-1 household medical cost is KRW 29,975,000 before any caregiver, travel, lodging, or income interruption.

Example 2: use an itemized transplant-center quote

Assume a KRW 100,000,000 surgery-and-admission covered total, KRW 5,000,000 surgery non-covered cost, KRW 10,000,000 year-1 post-discharge covered total, and KRW 1,000,000 additional non-covered cost with V277 active.
The covered patient portions are KRW 10,000,000 for surgery and KRW 1,000,000 for follow-up; adding KRW 6,000,000 non-covered medical cost produces KRW 17,000,000 before relief.
With KRW 100,000,000 gross salary, no prior medical expense, and the no-base-cap category, the simplified tax credit is KRW 2,100,000 and the year-1 result is KRW 14,900,000 if there is no other relief or household cost.

Why both examples are only scenarios

The usable tax credit can be smaller because of final tax liability, eligibility, year-end settlement, and reimbursement timing.
The public midpoint may combine covered and non-covered items differently from a current individual quote.
Replace every planning anchor with the patient’s itemized estimate before making a funding decision.

V277 lasts an initial five years

The current Standards for Special Cases of Copayment, Ministry of Health and Welfare Notice No. 2026-101, give V277 an initial registration period of five years.
Under Article 7, an application filed within 30 days of confirmation can apply from the confirmation date; a later filing generally applies from the application date.
Enter the years remaining on the actual registration record rather than restarting five years each time the patient visits a hospital.

Article 8 permits a re-registration application when the qualifying condition remains and continuing treatment is required at expiry, but that is not automatic approval.
If the projection extends beyond the entered remaining period and re-registration is off, later covered follow-up switches to the ordinary outpatient comparator.
If the assumption is on, 10% continues solely as an approved-case cost scenario and does not predict eligibility.

Lower-cost case

Model approved re-registration and a stable annual follow-up amount to see the liquidity floor.

Reference case

Use 10% only for the years remaining on the record, then change to a confirmed ordinary outpatient rate.

Higher-cash case

Increase non-covered care, readmission reserve, lodging, and income interruption to estimate emergency liquidity.

Step-by-step use

  1. Confirm the procedure.
    Choose Q8101 for a single-lung transplant or Q8102 for bilateral transplantation, and keep Q8103 combined heart-lung transplantation outside this model.
  2. Ask what the quote represents.
    Find out whether it is a final patient planning amount or the covered total including the NHI share before copay.
  3. Separate charges without duplication.
    Do not re-enter non-covered or follow-up cost already included in the surgery-through-discharge quote.
  4. Check the V277 record.
    Use the identifier and remaining registration period confirmed by the hospital or National Health Insurance Service.
  5. Add long-term transplant care.
    Separate covered and non-covered immunosuppressants, drug-level tests, pulmonary-function tests, imaging, visits, and directly related readmissions.
  6. Keep household cost separate.
    Track caregiving, family travel, lodging, and income interruption outside the special-case and medical tax-credit calculation.
  7. Enter only confirmed relief.
    Use a refund, indemnity-insurance payment, or support amount only after the responsible institution has confirmed it for the patient.
  8. Compare several scenarios.
    Change re-registration, non-covered cost, ordinary outpatient rate, and projection years to build lower, reference, and higher-cash plans.

Track medical cost and household cost separately

Medical ledger

  • Covered total and non-covered charges for surgery, anesthesia, ICU, and ward care
  • Covered and non-covered immunosuppressants and infection prophylaxis
  • Drug-level, pulmonary-function, laboratory, imaging, and bronchoscopy tests
  • Directly related treatment or readmission for rejection and infection

Household cash ledger

  • Patient and family travel, lodging, food, and long-distance follow-up
  • Caregiving services and confirmed private-room differences
  • Paid-leave exhaustion, unpaid leave, and income interruption
  • Long stays near the transplant center and changes in family care arrangements

Lifelong immunosuppression and scheduled follow-up are central to post-transplant care, but the calculator does not prescribe a drug combination or visit frequency.
Rejection, infection, kidney impairment, and readmission vary too much to convert into an automatic probability or survival estimate.
The long projection repeats the entered nominal amounts and 2026 rules; it does not forecast medical inflation, drug changes, future notices, or changing income, so update it with actual bills at least annually.

This tool does not assess candidacy or organ allocation

This calculator does not assess candidacy, surgical fitness, medical urgency, waiting time, donor-organ allocation, waiting-list priority, surgical method, or survival.
Article 26 of the Organ Transplant Act and Annex 5 of its Enforcement Decree govern allocation through statutory factors such as urgency, blood compatibility, region, waiting time, donation history, and age.
A cost entry or the Q8101/Q8102 choice has no effect on the official waiting list or allocation decision.

Article 42 of the Organ Transplant Act states the general cost-bearing rule and points calculation to the health-insurance framework; it does not itself set a 10% copay.
The direct authority for the 10% lung-transplant rate is V277 in the special-case notice.
The hospital and NHIS remain authoritative for registration, direct relatedness, covered classification, and an actual ceiling refund.

Frequently asked questions

Should I multiply the published KRW 30–40 million by 10%?

Not unless the hospital confirms that the figure is the covered total before copay.
If it is presented as the patient’s planning amount, enter it unchanged in patient-payment mode; use itemized mode only after obtaining the covered total and separate non-covered charges.

Does lung transplantation use the heart-transplant 5% rule?

A lung-only transplant should be checked under V277 at 10%.
The V192 heart-surgery rule of 5% for up to 60 days is not automatically applied, and Q8103 combined heart-lung transplantation is outside this calculator.

Does V277 reduce every medical charge to 10%?

No.
It applies during registration to covered inpatient and outpatient care directly related to the lung transplant, while non-covered care, selective benefits, full-self-pay items, unrelated treatment, and household cost remain separate.

Is V277 re-registration automatic after five years?

No.
A patient can apply when the qualifying condition remains and continuing treatment is required, but approval and its effective date must be confirmed before expiry.

Why are the NHI ceiling and private insurance not automatic?

The ceiling is limited to qualifying covered statutory copays and depends on income tier, excluded items, and reconciliation timing.
Private indemnity coverage varies by policy generation, terms, deductible, and coordination rules, so a single percentage would create false precision.

Can the result predict my waiting time?

No.
Financial planning and donor-organ allocation are separate systems; ask the transplant center and the Korean Network for Organ Sharing about clinical assessment, registration, urgency, and allocation.

Primary sources and verification order

Recalculate beside the itemized quote

Separate the covered total, non-covered charges, remaining V277 period, confirmed reimbursements, and household costs line by line.
Use the result as a checklist for the transplant-center billing office, NHIS, insurer, and support programs—not as a medical or allocation decision.