| Verified against primary record | |
| Prior authorisation requests (2023) | 6 received, 4 authorised, 2 refused[1] |
|---|---|
| Amount reimbursed, authorised care (2023) | EUR 133,389[1] |
| Reimbursement requests (2023) | 91 received, 85 granted, 6 refused[1] |
| Scope of the Greek return | Individual claims under the Directive only; reimbursement figures cover both planned and unplanned care[1] |
| National contact point | The national organisation for healthcare provision[2] |
| Independently reported | |
| EU patients using the Directive each year | About 200,000, under 0.05 per cent of EU citizens[3] |
| Bands apply only to the rows beneath them. All counts are claims by Greek insured persons for care obtained abroad and are not a count of foreign patients treated in Greece. Because the reimbursement figures cover unplanned as well as planned care, they are not a measure of travel undertaken to obtain treatment. No typical cost range is given because no official Greek source publishes prices paid by foreign patients. | |
Medical tourism in Greece appears in the European data at small volumes but with a notably high cost per authorised case. Greece reimbursed 133,389 euro for four authorised cross-border treatments in reference year 2023, alongside 91 reimbursement claims on the unauthorised route. The Commission records that the Greek reimbursement figures cover unplanned as well as planned care, which means they cannot be read as a count of travel undertaken in order to obtain treatment.
Few cases, large sums
For reference year 2023 Greece recorded six requests for prior authorisation, of which four were authorised and two refused, with 133,389 euro reimbursed for care subject to authorisation. On the unauthorised route it received 91 reimbursement requests, granted 85 and refused six.[1]
The amount is striking beside the case count. Greece reimbursed more for authorised care than Slovenia did with 28 authorisations, and more than Belgium did with 17. Authorised cross-border care is by definition the complex end of the spectrum, involving overnight hospital stays or highly specialised infrastructure, and a handful of such cases can carry a large cost.[1]
No average per case should be derived from these two figures, because the amount reimbursed in a year need not relate to the cases authorised in that year, and the report’s own caveat is that decisions and payments can fall in different years from requests.[1]
What the Greek return covers
The Commission notes two scope limits specific to Greece. The 2023 data refer only to individual claims made under the Directive, and the reimbursement figures cover both planned and unplanned care.[1]
The second point matters most. Unplanned care is treatment needed while someone happens to be abroad, which is the opposite of medical travel. A figure that mixes the two cannot be used to measure either, and the 91 claims should not be presented as 91 Greek medical travellers.[1]
Greece’s designated national contact point for cross-border healthcare is the national organisation for healthcare provision, the body that administers statutory health cover.[2]
The framework
Under Directive 2011/24/EU the member state of affiliation must reimburse cross-border care where the treatment is among the benefits it covers domestically, capped at the level of costs it would have assumed and not exceeding the actual cost received. Prior authorisation may be required only for care subject to planning requirements involving an overnight hospital stay or highly specialised and cost-intensive infrastructure, for treatments carrying a particular risk, and for providers raising serious quality or safety concerns.[5]
Eurostat separately maintains a collection of hospital discharges of non-residents, with tables for in-patients, day cases, bed days and average length of stay, reporting country of residence where member states can supply it. Individual cell values for Greece were not retrievable for this article.[4]
For scale, the European Court of Auditors estimated about 200,000 patients a year using the Directive across the Union, fewer than 0.05 per cent of EU citizens, with prior authorisation applying in around 1 per cent of cases.[3]
Limits of the evidence
These figures describe Greek patients obtaining care abroad, not foreign patients treated in Greece, for which no official Greek count was located. The reimbursement count mixes planned and unplanned care by the Commission’s own note, so it measures neither cleanly. No cost per case has been calculated. Greece’s privately funded sectors, including fertility treatment for patients from elsewhere in Europe, appear in none of these sources and no figure for them has been estimated.
See also
- Emergency healthcare abroad, the unplanned care mixed into the Greek figures
- Fertility tourism, a privately funded flow absent from these figures
- Quaternary care, the complexity level authorised cases tend to involve
- Government-funded treatment abroad, the category the authorised cases fall into
- Cross-border healthcare, the framework producing the Greek figures
References
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety. Data on cross-border patient healthcare following Directive 2011/24/EU, reference year 2023. 15 May 2025. Verified against primary record: the report was opened and the Greek rows for prior authorisation and reimbursement and the amount reimbursed, the notes that the Greek data refer only to individual claims under the Directive and that the reimbursement figures cover both planned and unplanned care, the Slovenian and Belgian comparators for amounts reimbursed, and the caveat that requests may be decided in a later year were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- United Kingdom government publishing service. EEA countries and contact points. Verified against primary record: the list was opened and the designation of the national organisation for healthcare provision as Greece’s national contact point was read directly. The document does not state a publication date, which is recorded here as a limitation. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- European Court of Auditors. Special Report 07/2019: EU actions for cross-border healthcare. 2019. Verified against primary record: the report was opened and the annual patient estimate, the share of citizens and the share of cases requiring prior authorisation were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- Eurostat. Hospital discharges and length of stay for inpatient and curative care (hlth_hosd), reference metadata. Last updated 15 December 2025. Verified against primary record: the metadata page was opened and the non-resident definition, the statement that country of residence is reported, and the list of non-resident tables were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- European Parliament and Council. Directive 2011/24/EU, Chapter III, Articles 7 and 8. 9 March 2011. Verified against primary record: the chapter text was opened and the reimbursement rule in Article 7 and the three permitted grounds for prior authorisation in Article 8(2), including the overnight stay and specialised infrastructure condition, were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: this entry uses only official sources. No cost per authorised case has been calculated, because the amount reimbursed in a year need not correspond to the cases authorised in it. The Commission’s note that the Greek reimbursement figures mix planned and unplanned care is reported prominently, because it means those figures measure neither medical travel nor emergency care cleanly. No official Greek count of foreign patients treated in Greece was located, and no figure has been estimated.