Many foreign patients seeking medical treatment in the Czech Republic

2009-09-07

Czech hospitals treated almost 79,100 foreign patients in 2008, in contrast to 69,770 in 2007, according to data from the Czech Institute of Health Information and Statistics presented by the Czech News Agency. Of this number, 40,200 patients came from the European Union countries. People from Slovakia, Ukraine, Germany and Vietnam mainly seek medical treatment in the Czech Republic. Most patients from Slovakia, who accounted for 20% of all foreign patients treated in the Czech Republic in 2008, came to this country to undergo expensive operations which are not available Slovakia, such as transplants of various kinds.
A study carried out by the European Human Reproduction and Embryology Authority also shows that the Czech Republic is one of the countries most frequently visited by women with fertility problems who are seeking medical treatment. There are 26 centres dealing with assisted reproduction in the Czech Republic, and most of them are visited by both domestic and foreign patients.
The total cost of treating foreign visitors in the Czech Republic came to CZK 555m (€22.3m) last year. With regard to citizens of the European Union countries, Czech health insurance companies pay the costs first and insurers in the homeland of the patients then cover them. Other patients pay by cash for medical services. At the end of 2008, foreign patients still owed CZK 44.5m (€1.8m) to Czech hospitals.
On the other hand, over 88,700 Czechs were treated abroad in 2008. The total cost of these treatments came to CZK 356m (€14.3m).