No. PandaCareVIP is a coordination service company registered in China. We arrange appointments, interpretation, visas, transport and paperwork. Every diagnosis, procedure and prescription is made by licensed physicians at the hospital you choose, and your medical records belong to that hospital. What we charge is a service fee, listed as a separate line in every estimate.
Because it is the cheapest way to find out whether you need any further treatment, and it is the only service we offer that often comes back with the answer “you don’t need anything”. Starting with a check-up is US$1,599; starting with the wrong surgery costs far more — in money and in risk.
Take a standard check-up trip from Europe or North America as an example: the package is US$1,599, our service fee is US$250, return flights run US$700–1,200, a four-star hotel near the hospital is US$90–160 a night, and meals and local transport come to about US$40 a day — roughly US$2,800–3,400 in total. Before you decide, we send you this breakdown, written out for your situation.
No. A bilingual coordinator accompanies every appointment, every test and every conversation with your doctor, in English or Chinese. Outside the international departments, everything in a Chinese hospital runs in Chinese — the forms, the payment counters, the medication labels, the lift signs. Having someone there with you isn’t about politeness; it is the difference between understanding your own illness and guessing.
Four to six weeks is comfortable for a check-up, eight to twelve weeks for surgery — mainly because slots for endoscopy, MRI and a particular doctor are the scarce resource, not hotel rooms. If you want to travel within two weeks, tell us: sometimes it can be done, and when it can’t, we’ll say so plainly.
We will tell you what it is, what your options are in China and at home, and what each one costs — then the decision is yours. If you want to be treated at the same facility, that is a separate process: a new treatment plan and a separately issued written estimate; if you entered visa-free, it also means a change to the basis of your entry, which needs planning ahead. We never bundle this step into the check-up as a sale.
The sooner you tell us, the better. Hospital deposits are refunded under the hospital’s own cancellation terms, and we put those terms in front of you in writing before you pay anything, so you know the date after which the money is no longer refundable. Our service fee is charged when the written plan is delivered, not at the time of booking — so cancelling before that costs you nothing.
Yes, and most patients bring someone along. When the patient holds an S2 visa, companions need to obtain the same type of visa. We book hotels at contracted rates, you pay the hotel directly, and we arrange airport transfers. Flights we don’t touch: you book them yourself, and the fare and the miles are yours.