engleski

Directive 2011/24 Reimbursement rules and innovation in health care: a mismatch or an opportunity?

Access to cross-border health care has been in the limelight for about two decades, based on the jurisprudence by the Court of Justice of the European Union on free movement of services since 1998. The said case-law was codified in 2011 via the Directive 2011/24, the transposition period of which ended on 25 October 2013. This legal framework has had an impact on the way the EU Member States regulate patients’ access to socially covered medical treatments outside of their countries of social health insurance. The aim of the proposed presentation is to analyse the Directive 2011/24 rules on reimbursement/coverage of cross-border health treatments and determine whether these rules promote or act as a disincentive for innovation in health care. The presentation first briefly explains the context of the Directive 2011/24 and its reimbursement rules. This first part is followed by an analysis of the context and short comparison of the three routes of accessing cross border health care, namely the rules on coordination of social security systems, the case-law interpreting Treaty provisions on free movement of services and the Directive 2011/24. Next, the impact of the Directive reimbursement rules on health care innovation is presented, focusing on the introduction of new health technologies/treatments into social health insurance coverage of Member States. These rules may act as an impediment to medical innovation within the EU Member States. Finally, it is submitted that other rules contained in the Directive may facilitate medical innovation in the European Union and counteract the effects of the reimbursement rules.

Directive 2011/24, cross-border health care, innovation, reimbursement

nije evidentirano