Before you start

KITAS and SKTT, since the SKTT address drives your BPJS clinic assignment
An employer who registers you, for anyone formally employed six months or more
Private or company health insurance if you want direct access to private hospitals without the referral chain
A funded payment card, because private hospitals frequently require payment or a confirmed guarantee before admission

Step-by-step

1
Let your employer enrol you in BPJS Kesehatan
The obligation sits with the employer for formally employed foreigners staying six months or more. Contributions are 4% employer and 1% employee on wages up to a capped ceiling. Enrolment is increasingly checked at permit extension, which is the practical reason not to let it drift.
Via employerWho: Your employer registers; you co-pay through payrollWithin the first months of employment4% employer / 1% employee on a capped wage base
2
Check and change your assigned first-level clinic
BPJS assigns a Faskes 1 near your registered address, and everything except a genuine emergency starts there. Because greater Surabaya crosses into Sidoarjo and Gresik, an address registered in one regency can put your assigned clinic on the wrong side of a very busy road. Change it in the Mobile JKN app, subject to a minimum membership period, and do it at enrolment rather than after the first illness.
Mobile appWho: You, via Mobile JKNChange takes effect the following monthFree
3
Pick your private hospital and confirm your insurer is on their list
National Hospital, Premier Surabaya, Siloam and Mitra Keluarga all handle foreign patients. Ask the international patient desk directly whether your insurer has a local representative office and a standing arrangement, because Indonesian hospitals frequently decline to bill an insurer without one and default to payment upfront. Do this while you are well.
In personWho: YouIn your first weeks
4
Know where Dr. Soetomo is and what it is for
RSUD Dr. Soetomo is the highest-tier public referral hospital for the whole of eastern Indonesia and the teaching hospital of Universitas Airlangga. It has specialists and equipment that private hospitals in the region do not, and it is where the complex cases end up. It is also busy and public-sector in character. Knowing it exists changes the calculus for anything genuinely serious — Surabaya, unlike most Indonesian cities, does not automatically mean evacuation.
In personWho: YouKnow it in advance
5
Take heat and dengue seriously, in that order
Surabaya is consistently one of the hottest large cities in Java and heat exhaustion is a real risk for newcomers who keep northern-hemisphere habits about midday activity. Dengue is endemic and rises during and after the wet season; the mosquito bites in daylight, so evening repellent alone is the wrong defence. Any fever lasting more than 48 hours warrants a blood test rather than waiting it out.
In personWho: YouOngoing

Documents you’ll need

Passport and KITAS
SKTT — the address determines your BPJS clinic assignment
BPJS card or Mobile JKN account
Insurance policy number and 24-hour assistance line
A payment card with a workable limit for hospital deposits

Things most newcomers don’t know

Surabaya is where eastern Indonesia's serious cases are referred to, which meaningfully reduces the evacuation problem.

Guides written for Bali correctly stress medical evacuation, because Bali's hospitals stabilise and refer offshore. Surabaya is the other end of that chain: Dr. Soetomo and the larger private hospitals hold specialisms that most of the archipelago lacks. Evacuation cover is still worth having, but the base case for a serious illness here is treatment in the city rather than an air ambulance.

Source: RSUD Dr. Soetomo; Indonesian Ministry of Health referral system

Your BPJS clinic follows the address on your SKTT, and in this metro that can put it in another regency.

The assignment is address-based, and the built-up area crosses into Sidoarjo and Gresik with no visible boundary. Register at a company address or an old apartment and you can end up assigned to a clinic that is administratively correct and practically unreachable in morning traffic. Fix it in Mobile JKN at enrolment, when the minimum membership period has not yet become a problem.

Source: BPJS Kesehatan — first-level facility rules

Ask whether your insurer has an Indonesian representative office, not whether the hospital 'accepts' the insurer.

Hospitals here often decline to bill an insurer directly without a local office and a standing arrangement, which converts a covered claim into pay-now-reimburse-later and a substantial deposit at the worst moment. The question belongs at the point of buying the policy, and it matters more than the headline cover limit.

Source: Practitioner and consulate guidance for Indonesia

Heat, not tropical disease, is what actually catches newcomers here in the first month.

Surabaya runs hotter than Jakarta with a sharper dry season and very little shade in the industrial districts. People arriving from temperate climates keep midday habits — site walks, outdoor meetings, running at noon — and get heat exhaustion within weeks. The local pattern of starting early, resting through the middle of the day and resuming late exists for a reason.

Source: BMKG climate data for East Java; occupational health practice

Common mistakes to avoid

Leaving your BPJS clinic assigned to an address in a different regency from the one you live in.
Assuming BPJS gets you into a private hospital directly — outside a genuine emergency it does not.
Buying insurance on cover limits without checking the insurer has a local office that hospitals will bill.
Waiting out a fever in wet season instead of getting a dengue blood test after 48 hours.
Keeping temperate-climate habits about working outdoors at midday in a city that is hotter than Jakarta.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.