As of 1 January 2024, patients in Belgium will no longer pay for planned hospital transfers, Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke has stated.
The reform, which was announced at the 'Kom Op Tegen Kanker' (Stand Up To Cancer) conference, extends to patients being admitted for specialised treatment. These procedures often necessitate transfers to a more specialised hospital for optimal care. €13.5 million has been set aside to facilitate this adjustment.
In the current system, certain specialised procedures require expertise consolidation at one location, and patient transfers to different hospitals for treatment or intervention are therefore sometimes required. However, patients then face unpredictable and often unreasonably high bills months later, sometimes as much as €1,600.
From next year, patients will no longer receive bills for planned transfers between hospitals when it is more beneficial for them to receive treatment or undergo a surgical procedure at another hospital for more than 24 hours.
At present, hospitalised patients transported to another hospital and returning to the original hospital within 24 hours, or those transported between different locations of the same hospital, pay nothing for inter-hospital transport.
