What kind of service needs do people seeking treatment abroad have?

Both Kela’s Centre for International Affairs and the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare provide services for people seeking treatment abroad. The Contact Point provides general information about cross-border healthcare on the EU-Healthcare.fi website and by email at yhteyspiste(at)kela.fi. Kela’s Centre for International Affairs, in turn, serves all people moving to Finland and abroad and customers finding themselves in other international circumstances. The Centre is staffed by benefits officers and includes a customer service that serves customers by telephone. We sent them a survey to collect their views on the service needs of people seeking treatment abroad.

Customers enquire particularly about the reimbursement of treatment

The results of the survey show that people seeking treatment abroad often ask questions about basic issues, such as how to apply for treatment in the first place, how the process works, how much the treatment costs and whether it is reimbursable.

One of the challenges mentioned with regard to seeking a prior authorisation for treatment was the timely application. Customers often apply for a prior authorisation too close to the time of treatment, which can lead to the authorisation not being processed in time. It is important for us to clearly communicate to customers that Kela needs time to decide on the prior authorisation and that obtaining an opinion from the wellbeing services county is part of the decision-making process.

When it comes to seeking treatment independently, customers experience uncertainty about which kind of treatment abroad can be reimbursed. With the new amendment to the law, customers have found the requirement for referral challenging. The reimbursement criterion for treatment abroad is now a referral if one would be required for similar treatment in Finland. This requirement can cause confusion and concern among customers.

In addition, the lack of a common language is a challenge in providing advice. Many customers are not native speakers of Finnish or Swedish, and English terminology is not always familiar to them. This underlines the need for clear and multilingual communication to ensure that all customers can understand the information and advice they receive.

Survey responses complemented previous findings on the reasons for seeking treatment abroad

The survey also explored the reasons why our customers seek treatment abroad. The responses complemented our previous findings: the most common reasons were lower treatment costs abroad, linguistic and cultural issues as well as problems in accessing treatment in Finland.

The responses on where customers get information about seeking treatment abroad were also in line with our previous findings. The responses from the Centre for International Affairs indicated that a large proportion of the customers seeking treatment abroad get their information from acquaintances and people close to them. This suggests that information about seeking treatment abroad is to a great extent passed on through peer support. Peer support seems to be an important channel for the flow of information, and its use can contribute to increasing customers’ awareness of seeking treatment abroad and related practices.

Clear instructions and information about reimbursement criteria were desired from communication

The survey respondents felt that the people seeking treatment abroad most need information on the reimbursement criteria for treatment abroad, the process of applying for a prior authorisation and reimbursement and the time needed to process applications. They also wanted clear instructions and communication in languages other than Finnish and Swedish. More communication was also requested on the need to notify Kela of longer stays abroad.

The use of a website as a communication channel was considered useful, but some respondents found it confusing that information on seeking treatment abroad is available on two different websites (kela.fi and EU-healthcare.fi).

Read the other parts of the article series:

• How does the Contact Point for Cross-Border Healthcare develop services for people seeking treatment abroad?
• Customer interviews provide understanding of the service needs of people seeking treatment abroad