Brussels, 20/12/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 15 December, the delegations from the European Parliament (EP) and the Council reached conciliation agreement on the draft directive on cross-border health care. The text will be discussed by COREPER on Tuesday before formal approval by the two institutions. The Parliament will vote on the issue in January. The rapporteur, French UMP MEP Françoise Grossetête, may have welcomed an outcome reached only with difficulty in that “some member states preferred to risk EU Court of Justice judgments rather than have a directive”, but the compromise does not end the fragmentation of the healthcare market in Europe. Despite the efforts of the Parliament to defend patients' rights, the text merely keeps things as they already are, for example, with regard to prior authorisation, a safeguard on which member states, above concerned with protecting their own health systems, refused to concede.
Nevertheless, the EP managed to win terms and conditions for this prior authorisation. Strict criteria must be met before authorisation can be refused: clinical assessment would have to find risks for the health of the patient were he/she to be moved, risks for the people where patient is to be moved (spread of epidemic) or doubts as to the quality and safety of the care (hospital-acquired illnesses) or that the patient could be treated in his/her own member state within a reasonable period of time given his/her state of health for authorisation not to be granted. Requests for authorisation will be examined individually. When there are waiting lists for a specific type of treatment in a member state, that state will be required to grant authorisation. However, no overall timescale was agreed that would ensure that requests for authorisation are dealt with in the same periods of time throughout Europe.
In first reading, the EP wanted a provision exempting patients suffering from rare diseases from the need for prior authorisation. This provision was felt to be necessary for this type of patient given the massive variations among member states in abilities to diagnose and treat these diseases. Ultimately, the text retains the principle that the cost of any treatment that is not part of the healthcare package offered by the member state to the health system of which the patient belongs cannot under any circumstances be reimbursed. Coverage of the costs of cross-border treatment of rare diseases remain subject to prior authorisation but Parliament won the right for patients to be better informed of the possibilities for diagnosis and treatment in the various EU member states. For the rest, the text limits itself to making provision for the member state to whose health system the patient belongs being able to refer patients with rare diseases to other member states when diagnosis or treatment are not available in that member state. (O.J./transl.rt)