Europe

Citation

(2003), "Europe", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 16 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2003.06216eab.003

Europe

Europe

Common European health insurance card

Keywords: EU insurance, Health, Europe, e-Health

The European Commission has proposed 1 June 2004 as the launch date for a new common European health insurance card. The new card will make life easier for EU citizens, care providers (doctors, hospitals) and social security institutions. It will be introduced in three stages:

1. 1.

   Replacement of the existing E111 form for short stays such as holidays.

2. 2.

   Replacement of all the other forms used for temporary stay employees posted to another country (E128), international road transport (E110), study (E128) and job seekers (E119).

3. 3.

   Introduction of an electronic "smart" card, readable by computer. The card will simplify procedures but not change EU citizens' rights and obligations. The card will, for example, allow patients who have to pay for their health care abroad to be reimbursed more quickly by their own social security system. However, the card will offer more advantages as EU rules gradually open up more possibilities for EU citizens to be treated while on a temporary stay in another Member State. One such possibility, already agreed at political level between the Member States, is the right to all necessary care in the host Member State, not only emergency care.

In March a workshop on electronic health cards for Europeans, organised by the Telemedicine Alliance, was held at the regional office for Europe of the World Health Organisation (WHO). WHO, the European Commission, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are partners in the TM Alliance, a project sponsored by the European Commission and led by ESA. The project has been set up to pave the way for a unified system of telemedicine, often referred to as e-Health, across Europe. Its first job is to carry out a market survey and a document review on the state of e-Health within Europe to examine the progress made so far and to map the best way forward. Once this overview has been carried out models for telemedicine support will be put forward, taking into account the possibilities offered and developing trends in the e-Health sector. A unified European system will need to rationalise and harmonise national and even regional health-care practices and regulations as well as telecommunication standards.

The idea behind the workshop was to ensure that the new "smart" cards make full use of the potential offered by the IT evolution. Members of the workshop pointed out that smart cards could be used for much more than straight replacement of the E111 health form that Europeans use when travelling within Europe. "Smart" health cards could hold important information such as a patient's blood group and medication in use, as well as providing access to medical records. Quick and easy retrieval of such information would speed up health care, reduce the risk of erroneous medication and treatment, reduce time, decrease costs and streamline services across Europe.

However, before such a system can be put into operation, the health records of all European patients need to be stored in electronic format - something that is not yet the case - and state-of-the-art security and data protection standards need to be agreed upon, and put in place, throughout Europe.

Attending the workshop were specialists from across the disciplines involved in electronic health care so as to provide the expertise needed to come up with viable propositions. Initially the idea is for a card that would allow travellers suffering from both serious and less serious illnesses to be fully and quickly reimbursed, in their home country, for any health-care expenses they may incur within Europe. However, linking health care provision in the host country and the reimbursement system in a patient's home country is problematic. The workshop made good progress on developing a system for reimbursement of acute health care via use of an electronic card, but a system to allow reimbursement for more routine health treatment needs considerably more work before it can be put into place.

Participants put together a proposal on how to structure the implementation of the first health card due to be issued in June 2004. This proposal was due to be presented at an EC e-Health conference in Brussels later in the spring.

Further information about the TM Alliance can be found a:www.esa.int/export/esaMI/Telemedicine_Alliance/ESAM428708D_0.html

Information about the EU health card can be found a: http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2003/feb/hicard_en.html