Tear duct surgery costs beyond the operation itself
This calculator compares actual quotes for silicone intubation and dacryocystorhinostomy, commonly abbreviated DCR, under Korea’s 2026 National Health Insurance rules.
It is for adult patients offered tear drainage surgery and family members helping them budget, particularly older patients who need several visits.
The lacrimal gland produces tears; the tear drainage passages carry them away.
Searches for tear gland surgery may refer to drainage surgery, but this tool covers quoted tear duct obstruction procedures rather than lacrimal gland disease or cosmetic eyelid surgery.
Silicone intubation
Check whether the insertion quote includes later tube removal and follow-up visits.
Enter the clinician’s removal and visit plan; the calculator does not choose removal timing.
Endoscopic DCR
Record the covered and non-covered quote, including what is already allowed for anesthesia, testing and admission.
The procedure name does not establish inpatient recognition or indemnity cover.
External DCR
Use the actual external-approach quote and, where needed, a separate quote for one additional revision.
No success rate, recurrence probability or automatic revision surcharge is assumed.
Asan Medical Center’s oculoplastic guidance describes examination of the site and degree of drainage obstruction before considering intubation or a new drainage passage.
Your clinician must confirm which approaches are suitable and clinically comparable before you compare their prices.
Read the quote and record its evidence status
Covered total versus patient copay
The covered total includes the NHI-paid share as well as the patient share.
Entering only the patient’s quoted copay as the covered total and applying another percentage understates the cost.
In actual-amount mode, enter both the covered total and the actual covered patient copay separately.
Non-covered and extra medical costs
Enter the patient-paid non-covered amount for one visit.
Add only separately payable medicines, meals or room charges that are absent from the base quote.
Do not add anesthesia, tests or materials again if they already appear in the covered or non-covered total.
Visits and sides
Each surgery, removal and follow-up amount is a per-visit quote; a visit count multiplies that identical quote.
For bilateral surgery on one date, enter the complete two-side quote as one visit.
Selecting both sides does not double prices; two surgery visits are appropriate only for separate dates with identical quotes.
Confirmed, assumed or unknown
Use confirmed status with the quote date after verifying amounts and inclusions with the provider.
Use assumption for an explicitly provisional budget and unknown when the cost has not been established.
An unknown required row leaves the overall total pending, so an initial zero does not represent free care.
Admission days are a record, not a price multiplier; enter the complete covered quote for one admission.
Add separately payable meals or room charges once, using patient amounts.
Pregnancy, special benefits, Medical Aid, dispensing exceptions and other non-ordinary rules require actual provider-confirmed copays instead of the ordinary-rate option.
The age range is 18–120; pediatric congenital obstruction is outside this calculator’s scope.
Ordinary Korean NHI copay references for 2026
These references apply to ordinary adult covered care, with meals, room charges, selective benefits and special rules treated separately.
The percentage option rounds to the nearest won for planning; actual billing rounding may differ, so use the actual copay when available.
Ordinary adult NHI rates and clinic outpatient bands for patients aged 65 or older| Care setting | Reference copay | Check separately |
|---|
| Basic inpatient covered care | 20% | Meals 50%; room and special rules differ |
| Clinic outpatient | 30% | Separate low-cost bands for age 65+ |
| Hospital outpatient, urban / rural | 40% / 35% | Verify statutory provider type and location |
| General hospital outpatient, urban / rural | 50% / 45% | Verify provider type and location |
| Tertiary outpatient | Full consultation + 60% remainder | Consultation is already in the covered total |
| Age65+ clinic: covered total ≤ KRW 15,000 | KRW 1,500 | Ordinary prescribing/dispensing clinic rules |
| Age65+ clinic: > KRW 15,000 and ≤ KRW 20,000 | 10% | Apply to each visit’s covered total |
| Age65+ clinic: > KRW 20,000 and ≤ KRW 25,000 | 20% | Above KRW 25,000: 30% |
For example, an ordinary clinic follow-up with a covered total of KRW 20,000 for a 67-year-old gives a reference copay of KRW 2,000.
Age65 does not give the same low fixed copay at every hospital or for every operation.
Apply the bands to each visit, not to a combined total of several low-cost visits.
For a positive covered total below KRW 1,500 in this senior clinic mode, obtain the actual copay rather than relying on the reference calculation.
How to use the comparison
- Enter the patient’s age and enable the plans you need among A, B and C.
Record the clinician-proposed procedure and the one-side or two-side scope of each quote.
- Enter surgery visits, the full covered total, actual copay or ordinary reference option, non-covered charges and extras.
Enable removal and follow-up rows when they create additional charges or travel costs.
- Choose the indemnity evidence status and enter the insurer confirmation date, payment or deduction terms, and remaining limits.
Leave unknown terms pending rather than substituting zero.
- Optionally enter same-year salary, prior medical expenses and the new confirmed eligible amount for the tax-credit comparison.
Exclude hypothetical future revision expenses from the tax input.
- Compare base-plan cash, net cost and the additional revision budget separately.
Save or print the assumptions and results for your provider and insurer consultations.
Cash and reimbursement formulas
Per-visit medical and cash costs
Medical cost = covered patient copay + non-covered patient payment + extra medical payment.
Cash needed = (medical cost + non-medical cost) × visit count.
The base plan includes surgery, tube removal and follow-up; net cost after indemnity = base cash − applicable insurance reimbursement.
Confirmed deduction terms
For each covered or non-covered bucket, the deductible is either max(eligible base × percentage, minimum deductible) or the sum of the percentage amount and fixed amount, as confirmed by the insurer.
Add the two post-deduction payments, apply the combined per-visit payment limit, and only then multiply by visit count.
The whole-plan remaining limit is consumed once in surgery → removal → follow-up → additional revision order.
Eligible bases are patient-paid medical costs recognized by the insurer, not NHI-paid expenses or transport and companion costs.
If the policy combines buckets or uses another formula, use the insurer-confirmed payment option instead.
A zero limit means no remaining payment capacity, never unlimited cover.
An unknown earlier quote may consume the same cap, so the calculator does not invent a later cap allocation.
Worked example including removal and follow-up
These figures are fictional arithmetic examples, not national averages, tariffs or recommended provider prices.
The fictional-example button loads the same inputs into the shared Korean and English calculator.
Plan A: age 67, clinic intubation
Surgery covered total KRW 1,000,000 × 30% = KRW 300,000 copay.
Add KRW 100,000 non-covered care and KRW 20,000 travel for KRW 420,000 surgery cash.
One removal visit has a covered total of KRW 20,000 → KRW 2,000 copay plus KRW 10,000 travel, giving KRW 12,000.
Two follow-ups each use KRW 15,000 → KRW 1,500 copay plus KRW 5,000 travel, giving KRW 13,000 together.
Base medical spending is KRW 405,000, non-medical spending KRW 40,000 and cash KRW 445,000.
Subtract the confirmed KRW 300,000 reimbursement to get KRW 145,000 net cost.
Plan B: quoted endoscopic DCR admission
A KRW 2,000,000 covered total × 20% gives KRW 400,000 basic copay.
Add KRW 200,000 non-covered care and KRW 30,000 travel for KRW 630,000 cash.
This fictional quote assumes no extra removal or follow-up payment; subtracting KRW 400,000 confirmed reimbursement gives KRW 230,000 net.
Plan B is KRW 185,000 higher in cash and KRW 85,000 higher in net cost than A.
Verify actual inclusions and clinical comparability before applying either comparison.
For one additional revision in A, assume KRW 250,000 medical care, KRW 20,000 travel and KRW 100,000 confirmed payment.
The additional net budget is KRW 170,000; adding the base KRW 145,000 gives KRW 315,000 with revision.
This is an extra-event budget, not a prediction that revision will happen.
Interpret the results with your family
Cash needed shows what you may have to fund before insurance is paid.
Insurance may arrive after the hospital payment, so funding only the net amount can leave a shortfall.
If a required quote remains unknown, you see a completed-row subtotal while the whole-plan total stays pending.
If insurance remains unknown, cash can be calculated while reimbursement and net cost remain pending.
An assumed quote can produce a budget, but keeps its assumption label.
Several visits with an older parent
Apply the same transport and companion-cost assumptions to each plan.
Ask whether removal needs an additional trip and arrange the family schedule accordingly.
The calculator does not invent the monetary value of lost time; enter only the non-medical costs you intend to compare.
Both sides or previous surgery
Obtain the full bilateral quote before marking both sides.
Past surgery can affect the clinical plan and billing, so no automatic revision surcharge is added.
The revision row describes an additional event; it does not turn a one-side quote into an assumed bilateral or revision price.
Indemnity: check the policy and recognized care setting
Policy generation is recorded only to help you locate the contract.
Within a generation, enrollment or conversion terms, riders, senior or medical-history products, exclusions and limits can differ.
Give the insurer the procedure name, actual outpatient or inpatient record, itemized covered and non-covered costs, and removal plan.
Confirm eligible bases and deductions for each type of visit instead of selecting a generation and assuming automatic payment.
- Unknown means the payment is not established; it does not mean no cover.
- Confirmed no cover or exclusion applies zero reimbursement and records the insurer confirmation date.
- Confirmed-payment mode accepts the payment per visit, including a combined amount confirmed for multiple policies.
- Confirmed-terms mode needs separate covered and non-covered bases, percentages, minimum deductions, a per-visit limit and a whole-plan remaining limit.
Multiple removal or follow-up visits can each incur an outpatient deductible.
Adding all small bills first and deducting only once may overstate payment under the actual policy.
Operating time or time spent at the hospital does not itself establish a recognized admission; check the clinical record and the insurer’s application of the policy.
Estimate only the additional medical tax credit
Income Tax Act Article 59-4 generally applies a 15% medical-expense credit above 3% of gross salary.
Ordinary eligible expenses have a KRW 7,000,000 eligible-base cap; the taxpayer, people aged 65+ at the end of the tax year, disabled people and other statutory groups are outside that cap.
The NHI clinic age rule at the visit and the tax year-end age rule are different; verify the tax group explicitly.
Tax example for Plan A
Gross salary of KRW 50,000,000 gives a 3% threshold of KRW 1,500,000.
With prior ordinary eligible expenses of KRW 1,500,000, prior uncapped expenses zero and new uncapped eligible expenses of KRW 105,000, the incremental credit is KRW 15,750.
The after-tax reference cost is KRW 145,000 − KRW 15,750 = KRW 129,250.
The hypothetical revision budget is excluded from this tax calculation.
Enter new eligible base-plan medical expenses after subtracting indemnity payments, as required by Income Tax Decree Article 118-5.
Exclude travel, companions and ineligible document fees, and do not combine surgery and removal into one tax year if they occur in different years.
Separate prior ordinary and uncapped expenses so that the salary threshold and cap are applied in their statutory order.
The calculation compares national credits before and after the new expense, under the condition that expenses use the ordinary 15% rate.
It does not calculate infertility or premature-infant special rates, standard-credit choices, final tax-liability limits, local income tax or the timing and amount of an actual refund.
Unknown employment or insurance, zero salary or unconfirmed eligible expenses leaves the tax result pending.
Prevent omissions and prepare the claim
Avoid counting the same service twice
Check whether tube removal and follow-up are already included in the package.
Do not add a package total and its included anesthesia, tests or materials again.
Do not apply the senior low-cost clinic amount to a large operation or apply the basic inpatient 20% to every meal and room charge.
- Provider billing staff: confirm the procedure name, both-side scope, covered total and patient share, and inclusion of anesthesia, testing, materials and removal.
- Clinician: confirm the clinical plan, outpatient or admission need, removal timing and follow-up schedule.
- Insurer: confirm required receipts, itemized bills, diagnosis or surgery certificates, document fees and each visit’s reimbursement terms.
- Family: review the exported quote date and assumption flags; recalculate whenever quotes or inclusion details change.
The checklist supports preparation; it is not a claim that all insurers require the same documents.
The calculated cost does not determine a need for further testing, clinical outcomes or recovery timing.
Frequently asked questions
Is tear gland surgery the same as tear duct surgery?
The gland produces tears and the drainage passages carry them away; this calculator compares clinician-proposed tear duct obstruction surgery quotes.
Should I choose the cheaper procedure?
Suitable approaches depend on the examination and obstruction site, so compare only the quotes your clinician considers clinically applicable.
Does selecting both sides double the cost?
No automatic doubling occurs; use one complete bilateral quote for same-day surgery, or two visits only for separate dates with identical quotes.
What if removal is already included?
Use zero extra visits or a confirmed zero medical-cost row; if a separate trip is necessary, record its travel cost as non-medical spending.
Does everyone aged 65+ pay only KRW 1,500?
That amount applies to a particular ordinary-clinic low-cost outpatient band, not to every operation or to all hospital and general-hospital care.
Does choosing generation 4 or 5 calculate cover automatically?
Generation is a record only; enter insurer-confirmed payments or the covered and non-covered deductions and per-visit and whole-plan remaining limits.
Can I enter zero while insurance is unconfirmed?
Keep insurance unknown so net cost remains pending; use confirmed zero only after verifying no cover, an exclusion or an actual zero payment.
Is the after-tax reference cost a guaranteed refund?
It reflects an incremental same-year national medical credit; actual refunds depend on eligible evidence, tax liability and interaction with other credits.
Official evidence and your next consultation
Sources were checked on October 19, 2026 through the Ministry of Government Legislation OPEN API and the current official copay guides.
The records are NHI Act MST285273, Article 44, effective October 8, 2026; Decree MST289701, Article 19 and Annex 2, effective October 1, 2026; and Rules MST290599, Article 13 and Annex 3, effective September 28, 2026.
Annex search ID18451867 returned HTML for its detail request, so the same decree’s full XML annex000200E was checked alongside HIRA and Ministry of Health and Welfare ordinary-rate guidance.
The decree separately lists an Annex 2 change effective January 1, 2027; future provisions are not automatically applied to this 2026 reference.
Tax references are Income Tax Act MST280405, Article 59-4, with the relevant article effective January 1, 2026 and the statute version effective July 1, 2026; and Income Tax Decree MST290841, Article 118-5, effective October 1, 2026.
The same evidence supports both language pages, including the exclusion of indemnity payments and the requirement for actual taxpayer-paid eligible medical expenses.
First confirm the procedure name, covered and non-covered split, and whether removal is included, then save the result.
At the next insurer consultation, fill in the confirmation date and remaining limits to distinguish cash funding from eventual net cost.
For other eye procedures, use the pterygium surgery calculator or cataract surgery calculator with the relevant condition-specific quote.