If you have healthcare insurance coverage in Belgium, have received healthcare in another country of the European Union*, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland and wish
- to be reimbursed according to the rules and rates of the compulsory health insurance system, or
- to make a claim for a ‘complementary Vanbraekel reimbursement’ or ‘complementary Herrera reimbursement’,
then, when you get back home, you must submit the invoices to your Belgian health insurance fund*.

In order for your health insurance fund* to be able to calculate the level of the reimbursement, it is important that the invoices from abroad contain as much information as possible, including, for example:
- the amount that you paid,
- a description of the healthcare you received (e.g. a medical report),
- data on the foreign healthcare provider*.

The more detailed the invoice, the easier it will be for your health insurance fund* to calculate the amount to be reimbursed.

Reimbursement of healthcare provided abroad depends on a number of conditions being met:
- the healthcare must be provided by a person who is legally authorised to exercise medicine in the country where the treatment was provided, or in a hospital which offers sufficient health-related guarantees or is recognised by the government of the country in which it is located, and
- you must have paid the costs by the time you submit the reimbursement claim, and
- the reimbursement conditions of the compulsory health insurance regime have to be met.
 

 

Attention !

If you live in Cyprus*, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, or Norway,
and
- you receive a Belgian pension or Belgian disability benefit, and are, as well as your family members, entitled to healthcare in that country, to be paid for by Belgium,
or
- if you, as a family member, are entitled to healthcare in that country, to be paid for by Belgium, although the main beneficiary lives in another country of the European Union*, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland,
and
- you wish to be reimbursed in accordance with the conditions of the European directive 2011/24/EU* (e.g. the healthcare was provided by a private healthcare provider or in a private hospital),
then
you must submit the invoices to the health insurance fund* in your home country and claim reimbursement. Reimbursement will be according to the rules and rates applied by the public health insurance system in your country of residence.


More info?

Contact the health insurance fund* and/or the National Contact Point in your home country.

 

 * cf. Glossary