Which documents should you ask a clinic for before paying?

A clinic that is confident in its paperwork sends it quickly. A clinic that is not will talk about the price, the hotel and the photographs. This page is the list of documents to ask for before money moves, what each one tells you and what it means when one is missing.

Which documents prove who the clinic is?

Start with identity, because everything else depends on it.

1. The authorisation certificate. Every facility that treats international patients needs an International Health Tourism Authorisation Certificate, issued by the Ministry of Health. It is not transferable. Ask for the number and the name written on it, then search the number in the register search. How to check a clinic's authorisation shows what the entry contains.
2. The legal name of the operating company, with its address. A brand name is advertising; the company is the party that is authorised and that signs your contract. The regulation requires the name and title on a clinic's website to match the certificate, so a mismatch is a question to put to the clinic, not proof of anything.
3. Any accreditation or certificate the clinic claims. The regulation requires a facility to publish the accreditation or certificate it holds under the regulation on its website. If a clinic mentions one in a message, ask where it is published.
4. If an agency or coordinator is involved: its own authorisation. Intermediary organisations are authorised separately, by the state's international health services company, and each company or branch needs its own certificate. We have not found a public list of authorised intermediaries, so the document itself is what to ask for.

Which documents show who will treat you and what they will do?

1. The clinician's full name, title and the branch they work in. Not "our specialists". How to verify the clinician covers what you can check.
2. A written treatment plan. What is planned, in what order, over how many visits, with which materials or devices named by type and make. A plan that exists only as a conversation can change on arrival without leaving a trace.
3. The name of your contact at the facility. The regulation requires a facility to run an international patient unit and to assign each international patient a responsible member of staff from it. Ask who yours is.

Which documents show what you will pay?

1. An itemised quote. Treatment lines, materials, anaesthesia, medicines, imaging, hotel and transfers, follow-up visits, exclusions. What a quote should include goes through the lines.
2. The deposit and cancellation terms, as a document. What the deposit secures, and what happens if you cancel, if the clinic moves the date and if the plan changes after examination.
3. The invoice format you will receive. A facility must issue a receipt or invoice with a detailed breakdown of the services and their unit prices, and an agency must break down what it charges for accommodation, transport, transfers, interpreting and consultancy. Ask to see the format before you pay, not after.

Which documents protect you after treatment?

1. The consent form, before the day. Ask for it in a language you read fully and keep a copy. We did not find a provision in the 2025 regulation that sets what a treatment contract or consent form must contain, so the form is the clinic's own. That is a reason to read it early.
2. What complication cover the clinic holds. Since the end of 2025, existing facilities must hold complication insurance for surgical and interventional procedures performed in an operating theatre. The regulation does not say what a policy covers, so ask whether your procedure falls under it and what it pays for.
3. The records you leave with. On request and free of charge, a facility must hand over the list of medicines and consumables used and charged for, the laboratory and imaging results you paid for, and prescriptions for medicines bought outside. Add the operative or treatment notes and the discharge summary. Ask for these before you fly, because a dentist or doctor at home cannot reconstruct them later. The records you send to the clinic is the other direction of the same exchange.

How do you read the documents together?

Lay them side by side and read the names: the register entry, the certificate, the contract, the quote, the invoice format and the bank details. They should tell one story, and where they do not, ask for the difference to be explained in writing. The final checklist before a deposit takes this step by step. Keep everything in one folder, with the dates on which you received each item.

If a document is refused, delayed or replaced by reassurance, leave the line blank and note that you asked. A blank line is information. One late document may be nothing; a pattern of them across identity, plan and money is the clearest signal you will have before paying.

What does an investigation add to this list?

You can collect the documents yourself. What takes time is checking them against the official record and against each other, and noticing where they disagree. A Clinic Investigation does that for one named clinic and reports what was established, what was not and what to ask next. It does not assess clinical quality and it cannot recover a deposit. Clinics cannot pay Clinimora for anything.

Copyable checklist

1. Authorisation: certificate number and legal name received; number searched in the register
2. Company: operating company name and address match the contract and the invoice
3. Claims: any accreditation or certificate named, and where it is published
4. Agency: if one is involved, its own authorisation document
5. Clinician: full name, title and branch; role at each stage
6. Plan: written, with visits, materials and devices named
7. Contact: the responsible member of staff named
8. Quote: itemised, with exclusions, in a language I read fully
9. Terms: deposit and cancellation terms as a document
10. Invoice: format with breakdown and unit prices seen in advance
11. Consent: the form received before the day and read
12. Cover: complication insurance asked about, with its scope in writing
13. Records: medicines list, results, prescriptions, treatment notes and discharge summary requested before I leave