건강보험심사평가원 (Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service)

건강보험심사평가원 (Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, HIRA) reviews and assesses claims under Korea's national health insurance. As a by-product it maintains the most complete public register of Korean medical institutions: institution code, type (상급종합병원 / 종합병원 / 병원 / 의원), address, declared specialties and the number of licensed physicians by specialty.

For anyone checking a clinic, HIRA answers a narrower but harder question than a marketing page does: is this institution licensed, what grade of institution is it, and how many specialists does it actually employ. Cosmetic and regenerative procedures are largely non-reimbursed (비급여), so a clinic's presence in the register says nothing about whether a specific procedure is covered — only that the institution exists and is licensed.