The project Europe for Patients begins from the premise that an increasingly integrated Europe offers potential benefits to patients, through developments such as greater access to centres of excellence and actions that overcome existing trans-frontier imbalances between demand and supply. Yet for these benefits to be realised, there is still much to be done, in terms of co-ordination of legal, contractual, regulatory issues, and in provision of enhanced information to patients and care providers. These actions, in turn, require a better understanding of differences in how health systems operate, on a day to day basis, and of practical obstacles to greater co-ordination that exist. Europe for patient brings together a multi-disciplinary team with extensive knowledge of challenges involved in enhancing patient mobility within Europe, drawing on legal, policy, and research perspectives, covering all Europe, including candidate countries. Importantly, the team builds on established, successful, collaborative relationships. The project works at two levels: overviews of issues across Europe and in-depth case studies. The overviews look at: legal frameworks, at both national and European level, with a focus on recent European jurisprudence; on systems for contracting for health services across borders; and on systems for ensuring quality of care provided. These analyses will feed into the development of a methodology for in-depth case studies that will examine a variety of models of cross-border care, involving both existing and future Member States. In each case there will be an emphasis on the practical implications of legal and regulatory frameworks, so ensuring that the findings are of direct policy relevance. To maximise chances of this project leading to effective policy change, it incorporates a major element of policy engagement and dissemination, building on a strong existing model in the European Observatory on Health Care Systems.
Keywords:
Patients Rights, Patients Mobility, Cross Border Health Care, Role of patients
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