Customer interviews provide understanding of the service needs of people seeking treatment abroad

Seeking treatment abroad refers to travelling abroad for the express purpose of receiving medical treatment. Instances such as sudden illnesses or accidents during a holiday trip do not constitute seeking treatment. Customers can seek treatment abroad either independently without a prior authorisation or apply for a prior authorisation from Kela.

The purpose of the customer interviews was to collect information directly from customers about seeking treatment abroad. We interviewed four people who had previously sought treatment abroad and four people who were considering seeking it. We found the interviewees through the Contact Point customer panel.

The interviews were used to find out about the customers’ experiences and expectations of seeking treatment abroad and to ensure that the target groups and customer pathways we had previously established were still relevant. We asked the customers about their experiences of seeking treatment abroad: what went well and what presented challenges? This helped us to better understand the process of seeking treatment abroad from the customers’ perspective. In addition, we asked the interviewees where they received information about seeking treatment abroad and what kind of information they wanted.

Many interviewees had not claimed for reimbursement or found it laborious

Based on the interviews, the main reasons for the customers to seek treatment abroad were the expertise of foreign treatment providers, the speed and ease of access to treatment and lower costs.

The majority of the interviewees had sought or were considering seeking treatment abroad independently, which means that they first have to pay the treatment costs themselves and can claim for reimbursement from Kela afterwards. We discovered that many of them had not even been aware of the possibility of claiming for reimbursement. The interviewees felt that having to wait for a reimbursement decision was cumbersome. In addition, they did not know which types of treatment were eligible for reimbursement in the first place. The customers were particularly uncertain about which documents were sufficient to accompany the applications for reimbursement.

“It is noteworthy that none of the interviewees had heard of the amendment to the law on cross-border healthcare that came into force in 2023 and increased the amount of reimbursement for treatment abroad,” says Mira Rantakeisu, Expert at the Contact Point.

Language and time management posed challenges

In addition to the reimbursement process, the challenges mentioned by the customers when seeking treatment abroad included communication and language problems and time management during the treatment process.

Many of the interviewees wondered about whether they would be able to provide enough information about their symptoms to receive the right treatment when communicating with a healthcare professional abroad. The terms used by healthcare professionals also vary from country to country, which can make it difficult for customers to receive and understand information.

Challenges related to time management and planning were also common. The customers felt that it was a challenge not to know in advance the number of treatment sessions and the time they would take. Many of the customers who had received treatment abroad said that they had combined their treatment with a holiday trip.

More visual communication and examples of reimbursement amounts were requested

Based on the customer interviews, the most important source of information for customers seeking treatment abroad is their own circle of acquaintances. Various social media groups are another important channel for sharing information. In addition to acquaintances and social media, customers use the websites of public authorities, such as Kela, to find information.

One other challenge raised by the interviewees was the vocabulary. The vocabulary used in customer communication about seeking treatment abroad was perceived as difficult. For example, the term “seeking treatment” is interpreted in many different ways – some interviewees understood it to simply refer to going to an emergency department abroad. This highlights the importance of clear instructions and understandable communication when seeking treatment abroad.

The interviewees also expressed a wish for the visualisation and simplification of communication. As there are several pathways to seeking treatment abroad, there was a desire for clear visualisation of the different pathways. Many of the interviewees also requested that concrete examples be used to explain the reimbursement of treatment.

Read the previous parts of the article series:

• How does the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare develop services for people seeking treatment abroad?
• What kind of service needs do people seeking treatment abroad have?