The HSE operates a Treatment Abroad Scheme (TAS), for persons entitled to treatment in another EU/EEA member state or Switzerland under EU Regulation 1408/71, as per procedures set out in EU Regulation 574/72 and in accordance with Department of Health and Children Guidelines. Within these governing EU Regulations and the Department of Health and Children’s Guidelines, the TAS provides for the cost of approved treatments in another EU/EEA member state or Switzerland through the issue of form E112 (IE).
The TAS allows for an Irish based consultant to refer a patient that is normally resident in Ireland for treatment in another EU member state or Switzerland, where the treatment in question meets the following criteria:
(a) The application to refer a patient abroad has been assessed and a determination given before that patient goes abroad.
(b) Following clinical assessment, the referring consultant certifies the following:
- They recommend the patient be treated in another EU/EEA country or Switzerland;
- The treatment is medically necessary and will meet the patient's needs;
- The treatment is a proven form of medical treatment and is not experimental or test treatment;
- The treatment is in a recognised hospital or other institution and is under the control of a registered medical practitioner;
- The hospital outside the state will accept EU/EEA form E112 (IE).
As provided for in the various governing Irish legislation and EU regulations, the HSE TAS allows for the referral of public patients to access treatment in the public healthcare system of another EU/EEA member state through the issue of model form E112 (IE). Therefore, for the purposes of the TAS, an insured person in Ireland is a patient accessing services as a public patient. It is of course understood and accepted that any private patient can opt to avail of public patient status but only by following public referral pathways: private status cannot be used as a system of skipping waiting lists for the purposes of prioritised access. Therefore referral for patients to attend a hospital consultant in a private capacity are not now nor were they previously eligible for consideration under TAS.
Private patients applying to the TAS for funding are advised to seek such funding through their private health insurance provider in the first instance. In the instances where a patient's private health insurance provider will not cover either all of or any portion of the cost of the required treatment, the patient can revert to the TAS providing a copy of the written decision from his/her private health insurance provider. on receipt of this documentation, the TAS will consider each application on a case by case basis.
Each application to the HSE TAS is reviewed individually on its own merits and there are no restrictions on a person making an application to the HSE TAS for review and decision. Previous approvals or refusals are not used as an influencing factor on subsequent applications. Each application is for an individual episode of care unless otherwise specified by the consultant on the application form.
