The National Assembly of South Korea will soon initiate discussion in the house to legalise telemedicine. Currently the country has just a pilot telemedicine programme that was initiated during the initial days of the COVID pandemic.
South Korea's universal health insurance, managed by the National Health Insurance Service (NHIS), covers the healthcare services in the country including those delivered through telemedicine.
According to a news report on the website https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/ over the past five years, approximately 23,000 medical institutions in Korea have offered telemedicine services, with 4.92m patients using the system according to new data released by the government in August 2025.
Telemedicine was first temporarily allowed in February 2020 at the onset of the OVID-19 pandemic and transitioned to a pilot program in December 2023 with revised and better eligibility criteria.
According to reports, the National Assembly will inter-alia discuss whether to allow first-time consultations and whether medication delivery should be permitted. These are major points of contention.
The data released by the ministry of health and welfare is based on records submitted to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service by various institutes and companies carrying on with the pilot programme.
Telemedicine in South Korea still accounts for a small share of all outpatient visits — only about 0.3% of the 78.02m monthly outpatient cases during the pandemic and 0.2% in the post-pandemic period. However, the rate of telemedicine use during evenings and weekends was nearly double that of in-person consultations, which stood at 8%.
Three bills to formalise telemedicine have been placed before the National Assembly, and the Health and Welfare Committee is expected to begin deliberations on these sometime soon. While there is broad consensus on the main point that it is now time to legalise the service, several unresolved issues remain.
According to the news report, the biggest point of debate is whether to allow initial consultations via telemedicine. The Korean Medical Association (KMA) has long opposed this, arguing that it "poses a threat to patient safety." In a recent meeting of its task force, the KMA has reaffirmed its stance that first-time consultations should not be permitted. Others argue that an outright ban is overly rigid.
The issue of drug delivery also remains contentious. There are also concerns that telemedicine is being used to overprescribe non-reimbursable medications. There are growing calls to impose stricter limits on drugs such as acne and hair loss treatments that are not covered by insurance but are frequently overprescribed.