ÖGK reimbursement of costs: I don’t want to go to the “closest” hospital: Do I have to pay for the trip privately?
Small newspaper
If patient transport is necessary for therapies and planned interventions: What travel costs are covered by the Austrian Health Insurance Fund and when patient transport is to be paid privately.
From Daniela Bachal | 2:53 p.m., March 19, 2021
Our reader recently had to undergo shoulder surgery that was postponed several times due to corona and was therefore overdue and made an appointment for it. The hospital of his choice was – “for several good reasons,” as he says – not the closest. “As a responsible citizen, you have to be able to choose the place where you can safely have an operation without being asked to pay for it,” he says. He was asked to pay for the necessary transport by Red Cross to the hospital and back. “The Austrian Health Insurance Fund (ÖGK) refuses to cover the transport costs on the grounds that it did not go to the nearest hospital.”says the man, and he now wants to know whether it is the law or arbitrariness.