Filenews 23 May 2025 - by Marilena Panagi
Cross-border care in the European Union is part of the General Health System and the Health Insurance Organization is currently in the process of preparing the necessary amendment to the GHS law. In the context of this, GHS beneficiaries will be able to receive services in other EU member states and will be compensated by the HIO on the basis of the compensation applicable on a case-by-case basis in Cyprus.
An amendment to the legislation is also being promoted with regard to the sending of GHS beneficiaries abroad for specialized interventions or examinations, while with regard to the start of the implementation of the relevant program by the HIO from October, the training of the Organization's officials has begun, is daily and is carried out by officials of the competent sector of subsidized patients of the Ministry of Health.
The HIO, however, expects to be informed about the number of officials of the Ministry of Health who will eventually be seconded to the Organization to help it in the initial stages of the implementation of the program. For the Agency, the secondment of these officers must not be less than six months.
A big bet for the HIO is the voting of the amendments to the legislation before the closure of the Parliament for the summer holidays in mid-July, since any delay may jeopardize the timetable of October 1. In fact, the HIO intends, as soon as it completes the necessary amendments, to ask the Ministry of Health to submit them to Parliament in the form of urgency, in order to ensure that the goal of their timely vote will be achieved.
"The HIO is preparing to undertake the program of sending patients abroad in October and for this purpose various procedures are underway," the senior official of the HIO, Monika Kyriakou, told "F". Five officers of the Organization, he added, "have begun to be trained daily by the officers of the Department of Subsidized Patients of the Ministry of Health so that we are able, as a HIO, to undertake the patient missions when the time comes". At the same time, with the training of the five officers, "we are also working on the amendment of the legislation, which does not only concern the changes that need to be made for the referral of patients abroad," said Mrs. Kyriakou and explained: "For the program of sending patients abroad, some modifications must be made so that the HIO can carry out its work. At the moment, the legislation does not include specific procedures or does not allow for certain procedures. For this reason, the amendment is necessary."
Also, "there is the road map that we are applying in order to be ready, when necessary, to undertake the shipment of patients abroad. In addition to the actions included in this map that we are promoting, we are constantly monitoring the progress of implementation so that we know if there is a delay somewhere to intervene in order to speed up the process".
"In addition to the above, an amendment to the legislation is also being prepared to enable the HIO to implement cross-border care within the EU. The part that the HIO will undertake does not concern cases in which Cypriot citizens are in another state and need emergency medical care. These incidents will continue to be covered by the Ministry of Health. The Agency will take care of the cases of beneficiaries who choose to be served by centres operating in other EU member states. That is, the beneficiary will be able to go to a medical center in another European country and the HIO will cover on the basis of the amount that would compensate for this act in Cyprus".
The summer is expected to be particularly critical for the HIO as, in addition to the programme of sending patients abroad and the promotion of procedures for cross-border care within the EU, the Agency will make efforts to stabilise and operate more quickly the medicines sector, which since 1 January 2019 examines and evaluates the dozens of requests submitted every week by doctors on behalf of their patients who need specialized medicines and treatments.
