Medical consumer cooperative establishment approval

Procedure

1. 1. Confirm the applicable approval criteria

   Check the business area, eligible founding members, contributions and officer requirements under the Consumer Cooperatives Act and Article 4 of its Enforcement Decree. Ordinary cooperative reporting criteria cannot replace these approval requirements.

2. 2. Reconcile membership and contribution records

   Match each member register entry to consent, eligibility and actual payment records. Establish the number of members and payment transactions to review and list missing or inconsistent evidence.

3. 3. Draft the articles, business plan and budget

   Address membership, withdrawal, capital, meetings, officers and accounting in the articles. Reconcile the medical business plan with funding and expenditure evidence. Keep cooperative approval documents separate from medical institution opening documents.

4. 4. Prepare founding meeting evidence

   Reconcile notices, attendance, proxies, voting records and minutes for the articles, officers and business plan. Attendance at the actual meeting is an optional additional scope.

5. 5. File the approval application and check the result

   Submit the application, articles, plan, budget, membership and payment evidence, minutes and officer documents to the competent provincial authority. Include two ordinary supplementation rounds and a result check. Incorporation registration and medical institution opening are separate.

Required documents

• Approval application
• Articles of association
• Business plan and budget
• Member register, consent and eligibility evidence
• Contribution commitments and actual payment evidence
• Founding meeting notices, attendance, proxies, resolutions and minutes
• Officer register, consent and eligibility evidence
• Office-use evidence and filing authorization

Fees

Procedure hours depend on the number of members and payment transactions. A sample budget using 500 members and 500 transactions is an example, not a fixed base fee. Meeting attendance, on-site checks, extra transactions, incorporation registration and medical institution opening are separate scopes.

See fees and official charges for this service →

Legal basis and review date

• Consumer Cooperatives Act, Articles 21 and 46
• Enforcement Decree of the Consumer Cooperatives Act, Article 4

Checked against the statutes on 2026-10-21

Statutes and public notices change, so each case needs to be checked individually. Statute titles are given in English for reference. The Korean statutes are the authoritative text.

Check these first

• Verify actual membership consent, contributions and founding resolutions rather than relying on a register alone.
• Apply the current criteria for the location and business type. The 500-member budget example is not a universal legal minimum.

Frequently asked questions