Healthcare

Overview

Introduction

Cross-border healthcare cooperation is defined as cooperation between healthcare players in two or more countries in the vicinity of their national borders. Patient mobility is just one element of this. Due to the fact that the different health systems evolved in relative isolation from one another, this cooperation has encountered obstacles to which solutions have been found. Since the early 2000s, the emergence of the concept of cross-border healthcare communities, promoted by the MOT, then that of “Organised zones of access to cross-border healthcare” (“Zones organisés d'accès aux soins transfrontaliers” – ZOAST) has made it possible to structure cross-border healthcare cooperation within a broader framework. In addition, the adoption of the EU Directive on the application of patients' rights in cross-border healthcare on 19 January 2011 also simplified the healthcare process for citizens and removed a number of obstacles to cooperation, notably with respect to the reimbursement of treatment costs.