Telemedicine hits record 2.69 million consultations as December switchover nears
Korea’s telemedicine consultations hit a record number as the service nears permanent status, with key rules on eligibility and prescriptions still unresolved.
A telemedicine consultation under the government's pilot program is demonstrated for reporters at a clinic in Dobong District, northern Seoul, on May 30, 2023.NEWS1
Telemedicine platforms brokered nearly 2.7 million consultations in Korea last year, the most since the industry began counting in 2022. Use has climbed faster still this year.
The figures land four months before telemedicine moves beyond its provisional status. A revised Medical Service Act takes effect in December and will turn a pilot program that has run since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic into a permanent fixture of the health system. Rules that will decide who can use it and for what are still being written.
Platforms brokered 2.69 million consultations in 2025, the telemedicine industry council said Monday, the highest annual total since it started compiling the data in 2022. In the first half of this year alone, the figure reached 1.99 million, already past the 1.53 million logged over all of 2024. The council, a group of platform operators under the Korea Startup Forum, bases its tally on the performance of its member companies, so actual use is likely higher.
"This is an indicator that telemedicine has established itself as an everyday way for the public to use medical care," an industry source said.
The National Assembly passed the amendment to allow telemedicine on Dec. 2, 2025. The first bill to institutionalize telemedicine reached the 18th National Assembly in 2010, 15 years earlier. The pilot phase it replaces has run since February 2020, through the pandemic and the long standoff between the government and doctors.
"Wasn't telemedicine something the medical community fiercely opposed?" President Lee Jae Myung asked at a July 16 work report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and other agencies.
Health Minister Jeong Eun-kyeong explained the steps that had brought telemedicine into law.
President Lee Jae Myung speaks at a work report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare and other agencies at the guesthouse of the Blue House in central Seoul on July 16.JOINT PRESS CORPS
"Under the revised Medical Service Act, telemedicine will be provided without regional restrictions and centered on clinic-level medical institutions," Jeong said.
"This was a subject we fought over enormously, but it seems to be passing quietly," Lee replied. "You got a lot done without my even knowing. Well done."
For patients managing long-term conditions, the service is already routine. A patient in Daegu in their 50s has been getting prescriptions for hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol by telemedicine since 2022, now in the fifth year. The three conditions are among the chronic illnesses that need steady management. Trips to a clinic to collect prescriptions have dropped sharply.
"It is convenient that I can get the medication I always take prescribed over the phone," the patient said. "Instead, I visit an internal medicine clinic every three or four months for a blood test and a check on my condition."
The broad shape of the permanent telemedicine system is set, but the specifics will be settled in the enforcement rules still to be drafted. One of the sharpest disputes is over how many days of medication a doctor may prescribe to a first-visit patient. Doctors want that capped at seven days on safety grounds. Platform operators counter that a blanket seven-day limit would sharply shrink use.
"Given the current usage pattern, in which many patients have chronic or mild conditions, two-thirds of users would effectively be shut out of telemedicine," Seon Jae-won, co-chair of the telemedicine industry council, said. "A policy change should not leave the public in confusion."
A screenshot from a telemedicine app shows the different categories a patient can choose for their treatment.SCREEN CAPTURE
The medical community wants the restrictions to extend to the drugs themselves.
"We have set treatment guidelines so that antibiotics, which carry a risk of resistance, as well as steroids, immunosuppressants, eye drops and hair loss drugs, are not prescribed in an initial telemedicine consultation," Park Geun-tae, chair of the Korean Medical Association's task force on telemedicine and electronic prescriptions, said.
Talks over prescription standards and drug delivery are expected to run on for some time. The Health Ministry plans to draft the enforcement rules after gathering views from doctors, pharmacists and the platform industry.
"Given how high demand for telemedicine is, we will listen fully to the relevant organizations and set out specific standards," a ministry official said.
BY CHAE HYE-SEON [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
