EUROPEAN HEALTH ministers have approved reforms to an existing cross-border healthcare scheme which will enable patients to receive certain care abroad without prior authorisation at home.
At a meeting in Luxembourg, EU governments reached political agreement on new measures which will apply common rules for the scheme for public patients throughout the union’s 27 member states.
The new system is designed to override legal uncertainty stemming from European Court of Justice (ECJ) rulings on patient mobility.
The draft directive approved yesterday will come into force once agreement is reached with the European Parliament on the final parameters of the legislation.
It will then fall to Minister for Health Mary Harney, who did not attend the meeting yesterday, to introduce national legislation to implement the new EU rules.
Patients will require prior authorisation for treatments which involve overnight hospital accommodation or which require a highly specialised and cost-intensive medical equipment and infrastructure.
However, a draft directive implies that patients who receive daycare abroad will not require pre-authorisation at home.
By applying common rules, the new system may also make it easier for patients to reimburse costs from the State.
In a statement, the ministers said the new system aims to ensure that patients “enjoy the same rights when receiving cross-border healthcare as they would have enjoyed if they had received healthcare in a comparable situation” at home.
“As a general rule, patients will be allowed receive healthcare in another member state and be reimbursed up to the level of reimbursement applicable for the same or similar treatment in their national health system if the patients are entitled to this treatment in their country of affiliation.”
