Mobility of people is increasing, products and services can be bought in another Member State when the need arises, but obtaining healthcare outside their residence country is still problematic for many Europeans. And this in spite of the legal framework for healthcare provision across Member States having been set up already in 1971 by the EU and its Member States with the so-called E-forms and the later European Health Insurance Card (EHIC). However, knowledge about this is not wide spread, and the administrative processes accompanying cross-Member State provision of healthcare have not developed at the same pace as leisure travel and labour mobility. To alleviate this situation, the TEN4Health project contributes towards improved healthcare provision for mobile European Union citizens. Initiated by leading public health insurance providers, the TEN4Health service package assures access of citizens to healthcare in participating Member States’ hospitals, based on a secure web service and its integration into developing European eHealth infrastructure networks.
The package’s key components include:
- information on local rules, co-payments and other aspects of healthcare for citizens in their respective language at the point and time of treatment abroad
- instantaneous online verification of insurance status for healthcare providers and assurance of cost coverage
- efficient support for fast electronic post-processing at the national level
- electronification of reimbursement procedures across Member State borders, with special attention to interoperability.
