By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

Korean hospitals will be able to attract more patients from overseas following government moves to ease regulations.

The government will summit a bill to the National Assembly's regular session in September allowing hospitals to fully use all marketing tools to attract foreign patients, the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said Thursday.

The move to open the Korean medical sector is designed to make ``medical tourism'' a new growth engine for the Korean economy, and eases concern that strict regulations have undermined the nation's potential in the field.

Once the bill is enacted, Korean hospitals will be allowed to use any form of promotional campaigning including paper and TV advertising; fee discounts; and transportation services for inbound patients.

``Medical tourism is a very profitable business. The reformation will help increase the number of inbound patients and most other industries will benefit from them,'' said Kim Hyung-jong, a health ministry official.

The number of foreign patients in Korean hospitals has drastically increased over the last two years. According to the organization Korean Hospitality in Healthcare, about 16,000 foreigners visited Korea for treatment in 2007, a huge increase from 760 in 2005.

``The reasons behind this explosive increase are low treatment prices, compared to advanced countries,'' said Jang Kyong-won, a spokesman for the Council for Korea Medicine Overseas Promotion. ``We set our goal to attract more than 100,000 overseas patients by 2012.'' The ministry estimates Korean medical institutions made $61.6 million from overseas patients in 2007, a 9 percent increase from $59 million in 2006.

Meanwhile, the government plans to introduce an Oriental-Western integrated medical service, which means Oriental hospitals will be able to employ Western medical doctors and vice versa. The current law bans integrated medical treatment.

The ministry will also allow wealthier hospitals to take over cash-strapped medical institutes, previously only allowed for non-profit organizations in non-medical sector.

Medical experts believe the move will help enhance the competitiveness of Korean hospitals.

pss@koreatimes.co.kr