| Verified against primary record | |
| Prior authorisation system | None[1] |
|---|---|
| Reimbursement requests (2023) | 139 received, 118 granted, 21 refused[1] |
| Change in 2023 | A new prior notification system was introduced[1] |
| National contact points | Two: the State Health Care Accreditation Agency and the National Health Insurance Fund[2] |
| Lithuania as a source market | Among the main countries of origin for medical tourists recorded in Latvia in 2024[6] |
| 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. The claim counts are claims by Lithuanian insured persons for care obtained abroad and are not a count of foreign patients treated in Lithuania. The Latvian cross-reference is a Latvian measurement of patients treated in Latvia, not a Lithuanian statistic, and it covers privately funded care that falls outside the Directive entirely. No typical cost range is given because no official Lithuanian source publishes prices paid by foreign patients. | |
Medical tourism in Lithuania operates without a prior authorisation system, which places it among the small group of member states that declined a power the Directive permits. Lithuania processed 139 cross-border reimbursement claims in reference year 2023 and introduced a new prior notification system during that year. Its outbound private medical travel is visible in a neighbour’s figures: Lithuania is among the main countries of origin for medical tourists recorded in Latvia.
No authorisation, but new notification
The Commission records that Lithuania has no prior authorisation system. The Directive permits authorisation on three defined grounds but does not require it, and Lithuania is among the states operating without it, alongside Cyprus and Latvia.[1]
In 2023 Lithuania introduced a new prior notification system, as did Slovakia. Notification is a lighter requirement than authorisation: the patient informs the insurer of the intended treatment rather than seeking permission for it. Because the change took effect during the reference year, the 2023 figures straddle two administrative regimes.[1]
On the reimbursement route Lithuania received 139 requests, granted 118 and refused 21, a grant share of about 85 per cent on requests received in the year.[1]
Lithuania is unusual in having two designated national contact points for cross-border healthcare: the State Health Care Accreditation Agency under the Ministry of Health, and the National Health Insurance Fund under the same ministry. Most member states designate one body, and the European Court of Auditors found that fewer than half of contact point websites explained that two separate legal routes to treatment abroad exist, a confusion that a split designation does nothing to reduce.[2]
Lithuanian patients counted next door
Latvia operates the only purpose-built official medical tourism statistics collection identified in this series, counting foreigners who travel outside their country of habitual residence for elective care not funded by the Latvian state. On figures reported for 2024, Lithuania was among the main countries of origin for face-to-face medical tourists in Latvia, alongside the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany, with Lithuanian patients associated particularly with infertility treatment, diagnostics and phlebology.[6]
That is a Latvian measurement of activity in Latvia, and the figures concerned were attributed to an industry body rather than to the state statistical collection. It establishes the direction and character of a privately funded flow rather than its precise size, and it covers care that the Directive does not touch.[6]
The contrast with the Directive figures is instructive. Lithuania’s 139 publicly reimbursed claims and its private outbound flow to Latvian clinics are different populations travelling for different reasons, and only the first appears in European statistics.
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 Lithuania 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
No official Lithuanian count of foreign patients treated in Lithuania was located, and none has been estimated. The Directive claim counts are claims rather than people and straddle a mid-year administrative change. The Latvian cross-reference rests on figures attributed to an industry cluster rather than to a state statistical collection, and gives Lithuania’s rank among origin countries without a Lithuanian patient number.
See also
- Medical tourism in Latvia, whose official collection records the Lithuanian inflow
- Fertility tourism, associated with Lithuanian patients travelling to Latvia
- Medical tourism in Cyprus, another member state operating without prior authorisation
- Diagnostic tourism, another service associated with this flow
- Cross-border healthcare, and the two routes a split contact point must explain
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 record that Lithuania has no prior authorisation system, the Lithuanian reimbursement row showing 139 requests received, 118 granted and 21 refused, the introduction of a new prior notification system in 2023, and the same change in Slovakia 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 two Lithuanian national contact points, the State Health Care Accreditation Agency and the National Health Insurance Fund, both under the Ministry of Health, was read directly, together with the single-body designations of other member states. 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, the share of cases requiring prior authorisation and the finding that fewer than half of national contact point websites explained the two routes 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 but not obligatory grounds for prior authorisation in Article 8(2) were read. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
- LSM English, Latvian Public Media. Medical tourism has had a good year in Latvia. 28 October 2025. Verified against primary record: the article was opened and the identification of Lithuania among the main countries of origin for face-to-face medical tourists in Latvia in 2024, the treatments associated with Lithuanian patients, and the attribution of the figures to the Latvian Health Tourism Cluster rather than to the state statistical collection were read directly. Retrieved 23 October 2026.
Sourcing note: this entry uses only official sources and one public broadcaster report whose figures are attributed to an industry cluster, which is stated in place rather than presented as official statistics. The Latvian cross-reference is labelled as a Latvian measurement of activity in Latvia, and is used to establish the direction and character of a privately funded flow rather than its size. No official Lithuanian count of foreign patients treated in Lithuania was located, and no figure has been estimated.