An elderly German man with diabetes brings extra prescriptions with him on a trip to Italy but will the pharmacist accept them? A Polish woman needs hip surgery and prefers to be operated in the country where her grandchildren live, but how can she organise this from Poland? A Portuguese man wants a specialist in Spain to treat his cataracts, but will he be reimbursed?
These are just a few examples of why clear and coherent rules are needed on cross-border healthcare.
A new EU law on patients' rights in the context of cross-border healthcare is about to be adopted. It will clarify patients' rights to safe, quality treatment in other EU countries, and to be reimbursed for it. Patients travelling to another EU country for medical care will enjoy equal treatment as citizens of the country in which they are treated.
This new law will benefit EU patients in several other ways too. It will:
- Make it easier for national health authorities to work more closely together and exchange information on quality and safety standards of healthcare.
- Provide help to patients who need specialised treatment, such as for patients suffering from rare diseases.
- Promote the recognition of prescriptions across the EU.
- Help create European Reference Networks, bringing together specialised centres of expertise and enabling experts across Europe to share best practices on healthcare and develop standards of excellence.
With this new law, decades of legal uncertainty on cross-border healthcare are finally addressed.
