Answers before you decide —
including the awkward ones

Every case is quoted individually, but you will never be asked to commit to a vague number. Our service pages show indicative all-in ranges at Beijing Grade IIIA hospitals, and once we have your medical records we issue a written, itemised quote — hospital fees, doctor fees, implants or devices, hospital stay, and our service fee as a separate line.

For a general check-up, expect roughly $300–700. For a single MRI, roughly $90–160. For major surgery such as a knee replacement, the hospital bill typically falls between $7,000 and $11,000 including the implant and a short inpatient stay.

Our quotes are built on the hospital's official published prices, not on estimates we invent. The figure can only change if the clinical picture changes — for example if a scan reveals that a second stent is needed, or if the surgeon has to switch to a different implant. Any change is explained and re-quoted in writing before it happens, and you are free to decline.

We are paid only for the services we provide — never for your treatment. Two things are billed separately, and you see both in writing before you commit to anything:

• Hospital and clinic charges are billed by the hospital from its official published price list, and paid by you in the hospital's name at the cashier or by bank transfer. The same list is on display on site, so you can verify every line. We add nothing to that bill — no margin, no booking fee, no percentage.
• Our service fee covers what we actually do for you: bilingual medical interpreting at every consultation and on admission, written translation of your records and reports, a coordinator present on appointment days, appointment and scan scheduling, and itinerary and logistics.

Our fee is never calculated as a percentage of your medical costs — a $500 bill and a $50,000 bill attract the same fee. We also take no commission, rebate or referral payment from any hospital, so nobody in the chain has a reason to make your treatment bigger or more expensive than it needs to be.

Both, but separately and transparently. Medical charges are paid to the hospital (at the cashier, on the hospital's own receipt, in the hospital's name). Our service fee is paid to Prima Med China. The two are never bundled into one opaque payment, so you always know what you are paying for.

• Alipay and WeChat Pay now accept foreign Visa and Mastercard cards, which covers consultations, tests, pharmacy and most outpatient bills.
• Large inpatient bills (surgery, multi-day stays) are usually settled by bank transfer (SWIFT) or by card at the hospital cashier; some hospitals prefer UnionPay.
• Cash in RMB is accepted everywhere. American Express and some corporate cards are less widely accepted.

We send you a short payment guide with your quote, matched to your hospital, so nothing is a surprise on arrival.

A deposit is normally only needed when we have to reserve a surgical slot or an implant for a specific date. It is paid to the hospital, not to us, and it is refundable according to the hospital's cancellation rules, which we show you before you pay. Our own service fee is refundable until we begin issuing invitation letters and scheduling appointments on your behalf. Full details are on the Payment & Guarantees page.

The gap is real and it has a plain explanation: Chinese public hospitals work from government-set price lists, they buy in enormous volume, they carry far lower administrative and insurance overheads, and many implants (stents, joint prostheses, dental implants) have come down sharply under national bulk-procurement programmes.

We are equally honest about the exceptions: brand-name items priced globally — some orthodontic systems, premium imported implants, patented oncology drugs — cost roughly the same in Beijing as anywhere else. Where that is the case, your quote will say so.

It depends on your nationality, and 2026 is the most open year China has had in decades. Three routes exist:

• Visa-free entry — ordinary passport holders of 40+ countries (much of the EU, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Brazil and others) may enter for up to 30 days without a visa, currently valid through 31 December 2026.
• 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit — available to citizens of 55+ countries, including the United States, when connecting through China to a third country.
• A visa supported by a hospital invitation letter — the safe route when your trip is primarily for treatment, or when you need longer than 30 days.

One important detail most agencies skip: medical treatment is not itself a listed purpose of the visa-free programmes, which are designed for tourism, business, family visits and transit. If you are travelling specifically for treatment, the cleanest and safest path is a visa backed by an invitation letter from your hospital — and we prepare that for you. See Visa & Entry.

Citizens of 55+ countries (including the US, UK, Canada and most of Europe) who are passing through China on the way to a third country may stay up to 240 hours — ten days — without a visa, entering through 60 designated ports and moving within 24 provincial-level regions. You need a passport valid for at least three months, a confirmed onward ticket to a third country within that window, and an accommodation address.

It is a genuine option for short, low-risk visits such as a check-up, a dental course or a diagnostic work-up. It is not the right instrument for planned surgery — and because immigration rules change, we always confirm the current position for your nationality before you book flights.

Yes. Once your appointment and treatment plan are confirmed, the hospital issues an official invitation letter stating your name exactly as printed in your passport, your passport number, the planned treatment and dates, and the treating doctor — with the hospital's stamp. We coordinate that letter, give you a document checklist tailored to the Chinese embassy or visa centre serving your country, and re-issue it free of charge if your dates shift.

We plan the itinerary so that tests, the procedure and the final review fit inside a single trip wherever clinically sensible.

Yes, and we encourage it for surgical cases. We can add a companion to the invitation letter, arrange a twin room or an apartment near the hospital, and include them in consultations. There is no additional service fee for a companion.

Yes — arrival transfer, accommodation within a short walk or drive of the hospital, a bilingual medical interpreter for consultations and admission, and a coordinator who is physically present on appointment days. These are part of the service fee and are listed in your quote rather than sold as surprises later.

• Passport (valid 6+ months) and a copy of your visa or invitation letter
• All previous imaging on disc or USB, plus pathology and discharge reports — Chinese surgeons read images, not just summaries
• Certified Chinese translations of key reports where possible; if you cannot get them, we arrange translation in Beijing
• Your current medication list, with generic names and doses
• Comfortable clothing and flat shoes for physiotherapy; avoid nail polish before surgery
• A payment method that works in China (Alipay / WeChat Pay set up with a foreign card, plus a backup card)

Mobile networks and email work normally. Some Western messaging and social apps are not accessible from mainland China, so we run all patient communication through WeChat, email and phone — all of which work reliably. We set up a WeChat contact for you before departure and send you a QR code, so your family can always reach a named coordinator. Purchase a tourist SIM or eSIM on arrival with your passport, or ask us to pre-arrange one.

Send us your imaging (DICOM files or discs), pathology and current reports. A senior specialist at a Beijing Grade IIIA hospital reviews the case and returns a written opinion in English within 3–5 working days, including whether treatment is needed at all, which procedure is appropriate, and an indicative cost. You can stop there — many patients do.

We coordinate care at large public Grade IIIA hospitals and selected specialist institutions, including Peking University First Hospital, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing Tongren Hospital for eye and ENT work, Beijing Jishuitan Hospital for orthopaedics, Fuwai and Anzhen for cardiac cases, and partner centres in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu. The hospital we recommend depends on your diagnosis, not on a commercial tie — and we tell you why we chose it.

Grade IIIA is the highest tier in China's own hospital classification, and these institutions treat very large volumes of complex cases each year. Some of our partner hospitals and departments also hold JCI accreditation or equivalent international certification — but not all of them do, and we will not claim otherwise. What you can count on is the tier, the accreditation status we state for the specific hospital we recommend, and a named surgeon with a verifiable title and case record.

This is the single most important choice in your budget, so we explain it plainly:

• Standard departments (普通部) — the hospital's own consulting rooms and wards, priced on the government list. This is where the great majority of Chinese patients are treated. Prices are the lowest available anywhere in the hospital.
• International departments (国际部) — private-style clinics inside the same hospital, with English-speaking staff and hotel-like rooms, typically charging 3–10 times the standard rate.

By default we arrange care in the standard departments, and close the two gaps that make them hard for international patients to use: language (interpreter plus translated documents) and logistics (registration, payment, appointments). You get international-standard medicine at domestic prices — with us doing the parts the standard department does not offer.

Yes. Chinese public hospitals issue reports in Chinese, and their standard departments do not provide English versions. We translate your key documents into English — imaging reports, laboratory results, the operative record, the discharge summary and the medication plan — and email them to you before you fly home. Nothing clinical is left in a language you cannot read.

In most cases, yes — the studies themselves (MRI, CT, PET-CT, histopathology) are on internationally standard equipment and are read in the same way everywhere; the images travel on disc and can be re-read by your physician at home. We supply the DICOM files, the translated reports and the treatment summary as one package, and we are happy to send anything your doctor asks for afterwards.

Absolutely — investigation-only trips are one of our most common services. Many patients come for an MRI, a PET-CT, an endoscopy or a full-body check-up, take the results home, and decide about treatment with their own physician. You are never pushed towards a procedure: our only instruction to the hospital is what you have agreed to.

Senior Chinese specialists usually read medical English well and many speak conversational English, but consultations in a busy standard department are conducted in Chinese, and consent and discharge discussions need precision. That is why a bilingual medical interpreter attends every consultation, admission and discharge with you, and why all written documents reach you in English.

We match you to a named surgeon and tell you their title (chief physician, professor, doctoral supervisor), their hospital, their sub-specialty and their typical annual case volume for your procedure. You will see these details before you commit. What no honest provider can promise is an outcome — medicine does not work that way, and we will not pretend it does.

Complications are managed by the hospital and the treating team, exactly as they would be for any patient — that is the advantage of being inside a large Grade IIIA institution with intensive care, other specialties and 24-hour staffing on site. Your coordinator remains available throughout, and we help with the practical side: interpretation in an emergency, communicating with your family, insurance paperwork, and extending your visa or hotel stay if your discharge is delayed.

The hospital and the treating physician, not Prima Med China. We are a coordination service: we help you choose a suitable hospital, arrange appointments, interpret, translate and manage logistics. We do not diagnose, prescribe, operate or provide medical treatment, and no doctor–patient relationship is created between you and us. Being clear about this is part of earning your trust.

Your surgeon decides. Before discharge you will receive a written fit-to-fly assessment and a discharge summary stating what is safe for the journey (flight duration, sitting position, mobility aids, medication timing). Airlines often ask for it, and we prepare it in English so you can show it at check-in.

You leave with a translated discharge summary, operative report, imaging on disc and a written medication and rehabilitation plan. For a set period after your return, our team relays questions between you, your local physician and the treating surgeon (telemedicine review of follow-up scans, suture or dressing questions, physiotherapy progression) at no extra charge. If a problem needs hands-on attention, we tell you to see a local doctor immediately rather than managing it by message.

Some of it may, but be realistic: most international health insurers do not direct-bill Chinese public hospitals, and China's national schemes only apply to Chinese citizens. What usually works is paying locally and claiming reimbursement at home afterwards. We provide an official hospital invoice (fapiao), an itemised English statement and the clinical documents your insurer will ask for. Separately, we strongly recommend travel insurance that covers medical complications, evacuation and trip interruption — that is protection against the unexpected, not a way to pay the bill.

Yes. You receive the hospital's official invoice in your name, an itemised English statement listing every charge, and the clinical reports. If your insurer needs a specific form or wording, send it to us before your visit ends and we will ask the hospital to complete it while you are still on site.

For a check-up or imaging, 3–7 days is usually enough. For elective surgery, plan 2–4 weeks: that covers records review, a 48-hour written plan, the hospital invitation letter, and visa processing if you need one. Urgent cases are expedited — scan slots and surgical dates can often be found within days, and hospitals will prioritise invitation letters for time-sensitive treatment.

Tell us as early as you can and we re-book at no extra cost, subject to hospital availability. We also re-issue invitation letters for a changed arrival date. Only deposits paid to the hospital for a reserved surgical slot or custom-ordered implant follow the hospital's own cancellation rules, which we show you in advance.

Yes. A bilingual coordinator answers your first message within 24 hours, reviews your situation, tells you honestly whether travelling to China makes sense, and gives you a written plan and quote. There is no obligation, no pressure and no fee for that first conversation — and if the answer is that you should be treated at home, we will say so.

English and Mandarin Chinese are provided directly by our own team, in writing and in person. For other languages we work with vetted medical interpreters (Russian, Arabic, Spanish, French and others) and can arrange remote interpreting during consultations; all clinical documents are translated into English, with additional languages on request.

Your records are used only to obtain medical opinions, quotes and appointments, and are shared with a hospital only after you tell us to. We do not sell data, run advertising profiles, or publish anything that identifies you. You may ask us to delete your file at any time. The full detail — including retention periods and your rights — is in our Privacy Policy, and the general limits of the information on this site are set out in our Medical Disclaimer.

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