in-cyprus 7 November 2025 - by Marilena Panayi
The Health Insurance Organisation (HIO) rejected 42% of the 146 requests for overseas patient treatment it received in its first month managing the scheme, primarily due to incomplete medical applications.
The HIO took over the overseas referral service from the Ministry of Health on 2 October, and these figures were released to mark the completion of the first month. Of the total requests, five were life-threatening cases. The five life-threatening cases were handled via the HIO’s 24-hour service mechanism, with all patients departing within 48 hours, some requiring air ambulance transport.
As of yesterday, 133 of the 146 requests had been evaluated. According to information received by Fileleftheros from the HIO, the majority of rejections were due to a lack of essential documentation, mainly missing medical reports. The HIO confirmed all rejected requests were “normal” cases, meaning they were neither urgent nor life-threatening.
The second reason for rejection was duplicate applications for the same patient. The first substantive reason for denial was that the procedures requested are already available in Cyprus under the General Healthcare System (GHS).
In cases where doctors resubmitted the application correcting the documentation, the patient referrals were approved and the travel arrangements to medical centres abroad were put in motion. Additionally, appeals have been lodged against some rejections based on necessity, which are currently being reviewed.
The main reasons for referral abroad for specialised services included allogeneic transplants/post-transplant monitoring, liver transplants, paediatric oncology, and orthopaedic cases.
Even if a request is rejected on merit, patients still retain the right to cross-border healthcare within the European Union. Under this mechanism, patients pay for the service abroad and then apply to the HIO for reimbursement equivalent to what the service would have cost domestically under the GHS.
