You are considered a posted worker when you work temporarily abroad for your employer in Norway and receive your wages from this employer.
Illustration: Morten Rakke / Helfo
You are considered a posted worker when you work temporarily abroad for your employer in Norway and receive your wages from this employer.
This presupposes that your employer pays employer's National Insurance contributions to Norway. You retain your mandatory membership of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme during your temporary period of work abroad and will be entitled to reimbursement for medical expenses from Norway. Read more about working abroad at the website of the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV).
Dependent spouses and children or dependent cohabitants and shared children will have the same health care entitlements as yourself in the country in which you are working.
Your rights to health care services abroad depend on your membership of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme. NAV Social Insurance and Contributions determines whether you have the right to membership of the Norwegian National Insurance Scheme when you are working outside of Norway.
Cecilie works for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She is posted to the Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. She is therefore entitled to reimbursement for healthcare expenses from Norway for treatment she receives in Tanzania.
Helfo can send you a letter to confirm that you are entitled to healthcare during your stay abroad.
In some countries, the authorities may require you to have confirmation of your entitlement to healthcare in order to grant you a visa or residence permit. Helfo can send you confirmation of your healthcare entitlements during your stay outside the EU/EEA.
You can get the conformation by using Helfo’s digital form.
If you need a confirmation of entitlement to healthcare services both for you and dependent family members, or if you for other reasons are unable to use our digital form, you can complete the following form instead:
Send the form to: Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg.
Cecilie has not needed any confirmation of her healthcare entitlement during her stay in Tanzania.
Your employer can pay for the treatment if you become sick.
If you require health care services during your period of work, your employer can pay for the treatment and then afterwards apply to Helfo (Norwegian Health Economics Administration) for reimbursement. It makes no difference if you use the public or private health care system.
Cecilie contracts blood poisoning while she is working in Tanzania. She visits a doctor, who is of the opinion that the nearest appropriate healthcare is in Mombasa in Kenya. She gets this documented by the doctor. The employer pays for her treatment.
For workers posted outside the EU/EEA, the rules on extended benefits apply.
Posted workers outside the EU/EEA have the right to extended benefits. Expenses for necessary hospital stays and hospital treatment are fully covered.
Coverage is provided for 75% of the necessary expenses for:
In the USA, Helfo has an agreement with the insurance broker Optum (previously known as Equian). Read more about what this involves here.
Illustration: Morten Rakke / Helfo
Separate rules apply for coverage for health care services for posted workers in Québec in Canada. Read more about what that involves here (in Norwegian).
Illustration: Morten Rakke / Helfo
For the help Cecilie receives from the doctor in Dar es Salaam, 75% of the costs are reimbursable. The costs of the hospital treatment in Mombasa are fully reimbursed.
You may be entitled to reimbursement regarding your Covid-19 test expenses performed by healthcare professionals. Coronavirus self-tests are however not covered.
The same criteria applies to reimbursement of vaccines as for other healthcare treatments. This means that you will only be entitled to reimbursement if you had been eligible for the vaccine in Norway. Read more about vaccination and priority groups here (fhi.no).
Section 5-24 of the Norwegian National Insurance Act (in Norwegian)
Travel expenses are reimbursable under the same rules that apply in Norway.
As in Norway, the main rule is that your travel expenses are reimbursed at a standard rate per kilometre regardless of which means of transport you use. You must travel to the geographically closest location at which the health service can be provided.
If appropriate healthcare is not available where you are staying, this must be confirmed by a doctor at that location in order for travel and accommodation expenses connected with your treatment to be reimbursed. The confirmation must include information on the medical necessity of travelling to another town or another country, and the location of the nearest available appropriate healthcare.
If a companion is necessary for medical or treatment-related reasons, this person's travel expenses will also be reimbursable.
In order to be reimbursed, the journey must be longer than ten kilometres each way and cost more than the local minimum fare by scheduled public transport. You will have to pay a user fee per journey.
If you are applying for reimbursement of travel costs, use the same form as for claiming your healthcare expenses. The form is available at step 6.
Cecilie is taken by ambulance to the hospital in Mombasa, which is 500 km from Dar es Salaam. She obtains documentation from the doctor that the hospital she is taken to is the nearest location offering appropriate healthcare and that use of an ambulance is necessary.
When the treatment is completed, the application must be sent to Helfo. This must be done within six months from each treatment date.
The application must contain:
All documentation must be in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish or English. You should therefore try to get the documentation issued in one of these languages. If the original documents are in another language, Helfo may, if necessary, ask you to have them translated. You must pay for the translation yourself. If you enclose a translation, you must also enclose the original.
If your employer has not covered your expenses, you can apply by using our digital form.
If your employer has covered your expenses, or if your employer is applying on your behalf, a paper form must be used.
Send in
enclosing the required documentation, to Helfo. This must be done within six months from each treatment date. The employer must complete item 4 on the application form if they have covered the expenses.
Send the application to: Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg
Separate rules apply for entitlement to an exemption card as a posted worker.
NB! If you are filling out this form on behalf of a child under the age of 16, be aware that it is the child's personal information that is to be entered. However, the parent/guardian must sign the form.
Cecilie’s employer sends the application form to Helfo, and makes sure to enclose all required documentation.
Send the application to: Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg, Norway
If you have any questions, please call Veiledning helsenorge.no (user service): +47 23 32 70 00
If you contact Helfo on behalf of anyone else, you must have power of attorney for them.
Parents/guardians must also have power of attorney from any children aged 18 or over. In the case of health information, you must have power of attorney from any children aged 16 or over. This is because the age of majority under health law is 16.
Health information is sensitive information and should not be sent by e-mail. You should therefore send the power of attorney to Helfo as an attachment to a digital form, or by letter post to Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg. Remember to enclose a copy of valid identification.