A male physician running an orthopedic clinic in Incheon recently received a request from a local broadcaster to appear on a televised medical talk show -- on one condition. He had to “pay” money instead of getting a performance fee.

In a proposal sent to the orthopedist, the broadcaster said its TV show would introduce him as “a specialist who endeavors to improve the health of Korean people’s spines by guiding prevention of related diseases as well as patient treatment.”

The broadcaster also suggested that it would introduce his clinic as “a popular hospital that earned fame with special medical services.”

The broadcaster asked for 6.6 million won ($4,590) in exchange for the doctor’s appearance on 15 episodes, with 10 minutes allocated to each episode.

In the proposed letter, the broadcaster called the money, “sponsorship for production.” It persuaded the orthopedist to promote the clinic’s facilities and treatment methods nationwide through IPTV and cable TV.

The broadcaster also offered to support press releases so that his clinic could be searched on major online portals, and to provide a highlight video so the clinic could use it on its website.

“At first, I thought it was just a simple request for an appearance on a TV show, but the money request threw me off,” the orthopedist said. “I thought about doing it but dropped it because it could cause trouble.”

Another physician, who received a similar offer, said he was worried that exposure of the hospital on a TV program could violate the nation’s broadcasting rules.

Experts have raised concerns about physicians and Oriental medicine practitioners paying broadcasters to promote their clinics.

Recently, the Korea Communications Standards Commission imposed a 10 million won penalty on a cable TV show that breached broadcasting deliberation regulations. In the program, an orthopedic surgeon talked about knee and shoulder pain while his clinic’s phone number appeared in the upper left corner of the TV screen.

Under the broadcasting deliberation rules, a broadcaster must not directly or indirectly link a physician appearing on a TV program to viewers during medical counseling.

Paying money to appear on a TV show is also in violation of the Korean Medical Association’s (KMA) guidance for physicians’ appearances on broadcasting.

In 2015, the KMA established guidelines to prohibit doctors from making profits out of broadcasting performances. Under the guidelines, a physician should not provide any economic benefit to a broadcast official to appear on a TV program.