Some HUF 5.2 bln was paid last year to foreign insurers from the Health Insurance Fund for the emergency treatment of Hungarians abroad, Hungarian daily Magyar Idők reported.
Hungarian health insurers will finance the treatment or medication of a Hungarian patient in another country if they need treatment or examinations that cannot be carried out here, index.hu notes. Last year a total of 574 requests were accepted.
Some 99% of accepted cases were for treatment in Europe (chiefly in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands) while the remainder was for care elsewhere in the world, such as in the United States and Israel, according to Magyar Idők.
European Commission data shows that only 1% of the population actively seeks treatment abroad; primarily it was during summer or winter holidays last year.
Following treatment abroad, foreign insurers are left with 18 months to bill the source country’s health insurer, index.hu reported.
The Hungarian health insurer last year billed a total of HUF 1 bln to foreign insurers on treatments carried out in Hungary on EU health insurance cards, the news portal added.
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