1st Cyprus Annual Medical Students MeetingSaturday, 13 February 2016Cultural Center, European University Cyprus

Dr. Adamos Adamou, OncologistMember of the Cyprus House of Representatives

John Dalli , EC for Health and Consumer Policy

“the Directive will help patients who need specialised treatment, for example those who are seeking a diagnosis or treatment for a rare disease”.

“some rare diseases are not even recognised in some countries, let alone treated... small countries often can’t offer the same medical services as bigger nations.”

The Directive provides a detailed legal framework focused on three main areas:

1. Rules concerning the reimbursement of costs of cross- border healthcare

2. Responsibilities of the Member States with regard to cross-border healthcare

3 . Cooperation between healthcare systems

Freedom of each MS Member States retain responsibility for providing safe, high quality,

efficient and quantitatively adequate healthcare to citizens on their territory

Furthermore, the transposition of this Directive into national legislation and its application should not result in patients being encouraged to receive treatment outside their Member State of affiliation.

This Directive respects and is without prejudice to the freedom of each Member State to decide what type of healthcare it considers appropriate.

the Member State of affiliation may choose to limit the reimbursement of cross-border healthcare for reasons relating to the quality and safety of the healthcare provided, where this can be justified by overriding reasons of general interest relating to public health.

•The new directive in short

•What’s in it for you

•The traps

•Next steps

Provisions of Directive : patient entitlements and prior authorisation

Patients have right of reimbursement when they receive healthcare in another EU MS

Level of reimbursement up to cost of treatment at home Quality and safety standards / legislation of MS of treatment

applies

Prior authorisation possible for a) overnight stay; b)highly specialised healthcare ("hospital care")

Authorisation may be refused if no "undue delay“ Authorisation processes must be reasonable, "properly reasoned"

Provisions of Directive: prices, access, information, prescriptions

Healthcare providers must provide information on: treatment options; quality and safety; prices; authorisation status; insurance / liability cover

Patients should have access to care on basis of non-discrimination; providers must apply same scale of fees as for domestic patients

Directive introduces cross-border prescriptions to help patients moving across borders

Νόμος 149(1) 2013

NATIONAL CONTACT POINT

(NCP)

ΕΘΝΙΚΟ ΣΗΜΕΙΟ ΕΠΑΦΗΣ Ιστοσελίδα

http://www.moh.gov.cy/cbh

The Directive is at an early stage of implementation. Due to the small number of related cross-border healthcare referrals, some of the Directive’s fields of application are not mature enough to be evaluated

The demand for cross-border healthcare would be larger if patients be made aware of the possibilities offered. This could be achieved by facilitating provision of information at national and EU level. This could be further assisted by enhancing the usefulness of the information provided on the websites of the National Contact Points and by involving patient organizations.

Indicators for quality, safety must be better standardised.

The Directive could be deployed as a solidarity tool to decrease health inequalities among member states.

OUTLOOK

THANK YOU