Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

938. To ask the Minister for Health the number of persons who have accessed care services in other jurisdictions and numbers availing of treatment under the cross-Border health care directive scheme since its inception, by year, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37360/17]

Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

939. To ask the Minister for Health the amount of funding that has been reimbursed to patients through the cross-Border health care directive to date in 2017; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37361/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

I propose to take Questions Nos. 938 and 939 together.

The Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross Border Healthcare provides rules for the reimbursement of patients' of the cost of receiving treatment abroad, where the patient would be entitled to such treatment in their home Member State (Member State of Affiliation) and supplements the rights that patients already have at EU level through the legislation on the coordination of social security schemes (Regulation 883/04). The Directive seeks to ensure a clear and transparent framework for the provision of cross- border healthcare within the EU, for those occasions where the care patients seek is provided in another Member State rather than in their home country. S.I. 203 of 2014 provides the legal basis for the Health Service Executive to operate the EU Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross Border Healthcare in Ireland, including the reimbursement of the cost of treatment..

As the HSE has responsibility for the administration of the Cross Border Directive, I have asked the HSE to examine the issues raised and to reply to the Deputy as soon as possible.