Questions we answer every week

No. Suitability is a clinical judgement and it belongs to the hospital and its physicians. What we do is get your records in front of the right department quickly, and relay their answer back to you in plain language.

Then we tell you, and we would rather do it early than late. A negative answer is still an answer, and it saves you a flight. If the hospital’s assessment says no, we will tell you what would need to change for that to become a yes.

The hospital does. We arrange the appointment, the records, the interpreter, the transfer and the schedule. We do not employ the physicians and we do not influence their clinical decisions.

Yes, where it is clinically sensible. Usually one department is the right first stop; occasionally two need to look at the same imaging. We will tell you which and why rather than blanketing the zone.

The hospital issues a discharge summary and imaging in English. We coordinate the transfer of those records to your own physician. Follow-up consultations can be done by video where the hospital permits it. This is coordination, not medical follow-up — your own doctor owns that.

Yes — that is the normal first step. Send a short summary through the form and we will reply with a secure upload link. Please do not attach full medical records to the initial form.

No. Boao Lecheng is a designated zone containing 43 independent hospitals and clinics, operating under a special regulatory framework that allows earlier access to certain medicines and devices. Each hospital is separately licensed and separately responsible for its care.

That is the right question and we will not answer it with a slogan. For mature procedures performed at volume, outcomes at the zone’s major hospitals are comparable to international benchmarks. For newer therapies, the honest answer is that long-term data are still accumulating, and we will show you what exists.

Medical fees are set and billed by the hospital, not by us. We publish indicative ranges where we can source them and mark everything else as indicative. You receive a written quotation from the hospital before you commit to travel.

No. We are paid a fixed coordination fee by you, disclosed in writing before work starts. We do not receive payment per patient, and we do not take a percentage of your medical bill. If that ever changes, it will say so on this page.

Eight hospitals in the zone have international insurance direct-billing arrangements, and we can confirm which apply to your insurer. Where direct billing is not available, you pay and claim; we prepare the itemised invoices and medical reports your insurer will ask for.

Medical fees are paid directly to the hospital, usually by international transfer or card before or at admission. Our coordination fee is invoiced separately. We never hold your medical payment.

Clinical complications are handled by the treating hospital under Chinese medical law, and hospitals here carry liability arrangements. We stay involved in coordination and communication, but we are not a party to the clinical relationship and we cannot indemnify it. Ask your travel insurer about medical cover before you fly.

Nationals of 61 countries can enter Hainan without a visa for up to 30 days for medical treatment, tourism, business or family visits. A further group of nationalities may use the 240-hour transit policy if they are travelling onward to a third country. Policies change without much notice — we re-check your specific passport against the current list before you book anything, and we say so in writing.

It depends on the pathway. A screening programme is two to three days. A joint replacement is two to three weeks including rehabilitation before a long flight. Cell therapies can run across several weeks because the product has to be manufactured from your own cells.

At the international desks, yes. On the ward, less reliably. That gap is exactly why a coordinator is on site — interpretation during consultations and consent discussions is included, not optional.

Yes. Most patients travel with one companion. We can arrange accommodation for two, and we will tell you honestly when a hospital room will not accommodate a second person.

Halal, vegetarian and low-sodium requirements can be arranged with notice, and prayer space is available at the larger hospitals. Tell us before arrival, not after — hospital kitchens plan days ahead.

Within two hours during Hainan business hours, otherwise the next morning. A clinical routing answer typically takes three to seven working days, because it depends on a physician’s availability rather than ours.

Three reasons, and only three. A specific therapy is available here and not there. A specific therapy is materially cheaper here for the same standard. Or you want the Chinese-language and TCM components alongside Western care. If none of those apply, those cities are probably the better choice, and we will say so.