If you sent your insurance card to Seoul National University Hospital (SNUH) but are still being asked to pay, ask whether the hospital has received and accepted the insurer’s Guarantee of Payment (GOP) for this visit. Sending the card starts a request; it does not confirm approved direct billing. SNUH’s billing and insurance guide separates the approved-GOP route, with possible patient contributions, from self-payment followed by a reimbursement request to the insurer.
Find which handoff is incomplete
Contact both the hospital billing team and your insurer using the same appointment date and patient reference. Ask the insurer whether it has sent an authorization, to which hospital contact, and for what service and period. Then ask the hospital whether it received that document and whether anything is missing. “My insurer said yes” and “the hospital has the authorization for this appointment” are different answers.
Make a short comparison before another call:
| What you have | What still needs confirmation |
|---|---|
| Insurance-card email | Was the request received, and is more information needed? |
| Insurer’s approval message | Does it identify this hospital, visit and service? |
| Hospital confirmation | Which charges must you still pay, and when? |
| A payment receipt | What will the insurer require to assess reimbursement? |
For example, an approval naming an earlier appointment may not answer the billing desk’s question about a newly scheduled visit. Ask the two parties to reconcile the visit details instead of resending the same card without explaining what changed. Keep their written responses with your appointment record.
Ask about your part of the bill before assuming cashless care
SNUH lists deductibles, copayments and coinsurance in the approved route and warns that unpaid insurer balances can still be pursued with the patient. Its page also treats an admission deposit as an estimate, and outpatient pharmacy medicine as a separate purchase. Ask for the amounts and payment instructions for your appointment; no insurer logo or GOP request establishes a zero balance.
If approval is absent, ask the hospital how it will handle payment and ask the insurer what evidence a reimbursement application would require. Preserve itemized charges and receipts; request any additional document the insurer identifies. Reimbursement is an insurer’s decision, not a guaranteed result of paying the hospital. Do not postpone urgent care while waiting for an administrative answer.
Use the contact for your insurance route
For foreign patients without Korean NHI, SNUH’s current contact page lists English international-patient support at +82-2-2072-0505 and international@snuh.org. Email provides a way to ask which billing handoff failed when a Korean phone call is impractical. Verify the address on that page and ask how to send any sensitive documents the team needs.
The same page directs Korean National Health Insurance holders, including foreign nationals, to the SNUH Call Center. The billing guide says Korean NHI takes precedence there when the patient also has global insurance. Identify both types of coverage when asking for routing so the international insurance request does not send you to the wrong billing team.
SNUH’s official billing and contact pages checked September 29, 2026 KST. This describes the named hospital’s process, not another hospital’s contract or an individual coverage decision.