The awkward ones included

TGCP charges one flat service fee of $1,000 per journey — once, not per person. Accompanying family members do not pay a second service fee. Everything else is paid at actual cost directly to the provider.

In both cases there are two bills: the provider invoices you directly, and we invoice you separately.

Because your costs fall into two parts with different timing. Clinical care is billed by the hospital at its own rates, as care is delivered; our coordination is a flat $1,000, due when you sign the service agreement. Keeping them separate lets you see exactly what each part costs.

No. The $1,000 service fee is charged once per journey, not per person. Accompanying family members pay only their actual costs — their own screening, their share of rooms and transport — with no service fee added on top. This is a firm pricing commitment, not a discount that depends on who you speak to.

The single exception: if a family member independently undergoes treatment such as dental implant work, that treatment is billed at actual cost directly to the hospital rather than folded into your flat fee. Both bills are shown side by side on your quote.

Yes — the $1,000 service fee is due when you sign the service agreement. It covers our work from that point. Everything else is paid directly to whoever provides it: the hospital for clinical care (screening packages at a fixed pre-paid rate, treatment quoted precisely after examination), and a licensed travel agency for accommodation and transport. Nothing is bundled into a single prepayment.

Depending on your policy and your home country, sometimes partially. We work in Renminbi and US Dollars where routing allows, provide itemised bilingual receipts formatted for reimbursement claims, and can issue supporting documentation. We do not deal directly with your insurer on your behalf unless agreed in writing.

Often no. China operates a 240-hour visa-free transit scheme and had extended unilateral visa-free or mutual visa-free entry to dozens of nationalities by 2025; several pilot cities add further facilitation for medical visitors. For longer treatment courses an S2 medical visa is the appropriate route, supported by an invitation letter issued jointly with the hospital.

Visa policy changes often and the decision rests with the consular officer. We will tell you which route fits your passport and your treatment plan, and we will not tell you the outcome is guaranteed.

That is most of what you are paying us for. A mother-tongue companion accompanies every clinical appointment, all reports are read back to you bilingually, and the daily corridor conversations that actually determine how a hospital stay feels happen in your language. English is our baseline; Japanese, Korean and Russian are arranged to demand.

The fullest itineraries start building ninety days out, because picture books are printed, reunion contacts take three weeks to run down, and visa and flight costs compound close to departure. Lighter check-up programmes can compress to roughly six weeks. Starting early does not commit you to anything — the plan and cost estimate come before any decision.

We can try, and we are unusually well placed for it. But never without your explicit written permission first — contacting a former employer, an old friend or a university office without consent is a hard red line for us, even when we are confident we could do it quietly.

When contact proves impossible, we build an alternative route and record in the closing report that the attempt failed.

A dietary questionnaire goes out thirty days before travel covering religious restrictions, allergies and dislikes. Halal, vegetarian, Western and post-operative therapeutic menus are all covered, and therapeutic meals are checked against your doctor's orders before they reach you. Getting a religious dietary requirement wrong is a single-instance dismissal for a coordinator.

No. TGCP coordinates: we match facilities, schedule, interpret, accompany, settle accounts and follow up. Diagnosis and treatment are performed by licensed hospitals, and clinical liability rests with them. If anyone here describes our role otherwise, that is a mistake worth correcting in writing.

The protocol is fixed: your companion stabilises the situation without attempting clinical judgement, emergency services are called and your companion rides along, the medical coordinator arrives within thirty minutes, and transfer goes to a tertiary international emergency department covered by prior written agreement. Family are notified within one hour, bilingual and in writing, and the insurance claim opens within twenty-four hours.

No, and be suspicious of anyone who does. We do not publish success rates, we do not quote cure statistics, and we do not compare China's health system favourably against anyone else's. What we can promise is process: named facilities, itemised bills, a companion who is there, and follow-up that outlasts the flight home.

Records and imaging move through encrypted channels under separate written consent covering cross-border transfer, and are stored domestically. Anything published is redacted first. You can ask us to delete what we hold, subject to whatever retention clinical records legally require.

Yes, and we do. The refusal rule is written into intake: if assessment indicates that travelling would not help you or carries risk we cannot responsibly manage, we say so and invoice nothing. An operator who never declines is selling you something.

TGCP (TIECEC Global Care Plan) is the international health coordination programme of the Tianjin Centre for International Enterprise & Culture Exchange, a Chinese non-profit social organisation with two decades of exchange work behind it. Full registration details are available on request by email.

Second Home Action launches in Tianjin, drawing on our deepest local relationships and a large pool of people with a China chapter behind them. Clinical programmes extend to Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an and the Hainan pilot zone for specialty cases, each tied to a named facility.