News

The European Commission recently published its third triennial report on the operation of Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare. The report can be found here.

The triennial report was published together with a study supporting the European Commission in its evaluation by assessing the impact of Directive 2011/24/EU ten years after its adoption in 2011. The final report from Tetra Tech (study lead), empirica and Asterisk Research can be found here. Jonathan Olsson participated to the study as one of the members of the expert panel for the study.

The European Commission’s triennial report was also supported by a trend report on cross-border healthcare following Directive 2011/24/24 prepared by Jonathan Olsson Consulting and KU Leuven (HIVA). The trend report focuses on the years 2018-2020 but do also contain figures related to years 2016-2017 to make it possible to uncover trends over a time horizon of 5 years (2016-2020). 

Read the full trend report here (pdf)

The report on cross-border healthcare following Directive 2011/24/24, year 2020, prepared by Jonathan Olsson Consulting and KU Leuven (HIVA) has been published on the website of the European Commission.

In order to follow-up on the functioning of the operation of Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare the European Commission collects data through an annual questionnaire. This year’s report covers year 2020 and is the sixth report to be published. It is worth pointing out that 2020 has been an exceptional year. The COVID-19 pandemic had a severe impact on everyone’s life, and movement of people was seriously restricted which has influenced the data for year 2020.

Read the full report here (pdf)

The report was presented in November 2021 at a meeting of the Cross-border Healthcare Expert Group.

About the Cross-border Healthcare Expert Group
The Cross-border Healthcare Expert Group brings together representatives from all EU Member States. The purpose of the group is to provide the European Commission with advice and expertise and to provide Member States with a forum for exchange of experiences on the operation of Directive 2011/24/EU.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion, and will continue to provide assistance to the Secretariat of the Audit Board of the Administrative Commission for the Coordination of Social Security Systems. In his role as Rapporteur of the Audit Board, Jonathan Olsson will continue to assist the Member States and the European Commission in various aspects of their work relating to the Audit Board and its designated working groups.

Jonathan Olsson will function as Expert Advisor to the consulting and engineering firm Tetra Tech in their work under a new contract with the European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, to “support the Evaluation of the Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare 2011/24/EU”. As Expert Advisor Jonathan Olsson will support Tetra Tech with for example methodological advice and quality assurance.

A consortium, Jonathan Olsson Consulting – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), led by Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, to provide “assistance to the Commission in processing and reporting on the Member State yearly data collection related to the Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare”.

The contract stretches over the coming two years and covers the data collection concerning years 2020 and 2021. KU Leuven will be represented in the project by KU Leuven Research & Development, acting on behalf of HIVA - Research Institute for Work and Society.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, to analyse the national transposition measures in Czechia, Slovakia and Spain for the purpose of the implementation of Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting is now on LinkedIn. You will be able to find information about the company and the latest projects and activities.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, to analyse the Danish, Finnish and Portuguese transposition measures and implementing practices related to Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Health and Food Safety, to produce a report on the ERNs (European Reference Networks) research capabilities.

The report will be done in cooperation with Gabriella Berki, Doctor of Law and Assistant Professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary. Gabriella Berki’s research focuses on the legal framework of European cross-border patient mobility and aims to bring a better understanding of problems cross-border patients potentially face with when obtaining healthcare outside of their Member State of residence.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting is moving to a new location.

The new address is:
Jonathan Olsson Consulting SRL
Rue Antoine Dansaert 113
1000 Brussels
Belgium

Jonathan Olsson, CEO of Jonathan Olsson Consulting, has been invited as key speaker at an EU event arranged by Public Policy Exchange. The event, Cross-border Healthcare in Europe: Promoting Patients’ Rights and Boosting Cooperation, will take place in Brussels Tuesday 12th September 2017.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded a new contract with the European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, to continue to provide assistance to the Audit Board of the Administrative Commission for the coordination of social security systems.

Jonathan Olsson Consulting have been awarded two new contracts with the International Social Security Association (ISSA) to produce evaluation support and training material related to ISSA Guidelines on Communication by Social Security Administrations.

Find out more about the International Social Security Association (ISSA) here

The European Commission has presented a proposal for amending Regulation (EC) No 883/2004 on the coordination of social security systems and Regulation (EC) No 987/2009 laying down the procedure for implementing Regulation (EC) No 883/2004.

The proposal focuses on clarifying the rules in five main areas:

• Unemployment benefits
• Long-term care benefits
• Access of economically inactive citizens to social benefits
• Family benefits intended to replace income during child-raising periods
• Social security coordination for posted workers

The proposal also includes a number of technical amendments as well as updates of the country specific annexes to Regulation (EC) No 883/2004.

The press release of the European Commission as well as the full proposal can be found here

As a next step, the proposal will be passed on to the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers for further discussions and negotiations.

The World Social Security Forum (WSSF) 2016 takes place 14-18 November in Panama City. Gathering more than 1000 participants from all over the world, the WSSF 2016 marks the end of the current triennium (2014-2016) of activities organised by the International Social Security Association (ISSA).

Find out more about the WSSF 2016

About the ISSA
The ISSA is a non-profit international organisation consisting of institutions, government departments, agencies and other entities administering one or more aspects of social security. The ISSA provides access to information, expert advice, business standards, practical guidelines and platforms for members to build and promote dynamic social security systems worldwide. Founded in 1927, the ISSA counts more than 320 member organisations in over 150 countries.

The European Commission has in cooperation with Jonathan Olsson Consulting collected and compiled data concerning 2015 in order to follow-up on the transposition of Directive 2011/24/EU on the application of patients’ rights in cross-border healthcare.

A report was published October 24 at the conference "Towards amplified awareness of EU rights to cross-border care" held in Brussels.

Health Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who opened the conference, emphasized the importance of the Directive for patients' rights and called for further work to improve patient information and cooperation between the National Contact Points.

Directive 2011/24/EU codifies the main principles of the case law established by the European Court of Justice related to cross-border healthcare, i.e. patients who are entitled to a particular health service, that is among the benefits provided for under the statutory healthcare system in their home country, are entitled to be reimbursed for the same service if they decide to receive it in another Member State. However, Member States can require patients to seek prior authorisation for certain treatments.

The Directive was due to be transposed by the Member States by 25 October 2013. However, the number of patients who take advantage of this new possibility still seem to be low. As an illustration, a majority of the Member States who participated to the report received less than 100 requests for prior authorisation during year 2015.

Read the full report here (pdf)