Health

European health insurance billing increases by 17%

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma13/10/2018 15:44

Over the first nine months of the year the Balearic health service invoiced 20.6 million euros for tourists with a European health card. This was up by more than seventeen per cent from 17.5 million between January and September 2017. IB-Salut attended to European tourists on 45,717 occasions - over 6,000 more than last year.

The general secretary of the health service, Manuel Palomino, notes that this increase has occurred despite there having been a slight drop in visitor numbers. He attributes it, therefore, to improved information gathering and subsequent claims to recover the costs of medical attention.

UK visitors accounted for 34% of the cases of attention, followed by Germans (9,500), Italian and French. The health service expects that the invoiced amount for the whole year will be some 36 million euros, three million more than in 2017.

Only around five per cent of cases have involved hospital admissions. The rest were dealt with at health centres and emergency units. Son Espases Hospital invoiced the most - 5.67 million euros, an increase of over fourteen per cent.