On the tenth anniversary of its launch, the European Commission will carry out an evaluation of the 2011 Directive on patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare. The evaluation will assess how the Directive’s objective to facilitate access to safe and high-quality cross-border healthcare in another Member State has been met and to what extent the Directive has promoted patient rights and cross-border cooperation between Member States for the benefit of EU citizens. The evaluation will look into approaches implemented by Member States, how effectively these are working and what barriers patients still face when seeking healthcare across borders.
Cross-border healthcare can offer a lifeline to patients in situations where the most appropriate treatment is in another EU country. More than 200,000 patients a year take advantage of the systems put in place under this Directive.
The Commission has published a roadmap on the evaluation of the Directive. The evaluation will look into how the Directive interacts with other legislation and whether its objectives are still in line with current needs of patients in cross-border healthcare.
The evaluation will consist of a public consultation which will be available via the Have Your Say portal and targeted consultation directed at particular stakeholder groups including national/regional authorities, health insurance providers and social security bodies, healthcare providers and patient organisations. The consulyation is open for feedback until 11 February. Don't hesitate to send your comments, feeback will be taken into account for further development and fine tuning of the initiative.