Infertility treatment in the EU/EEA
You might be entitled to a refund of a proportion of your expenses for infertility treatment provided in another EU/EEA country. Go through all the steps in this guide to understand your rights and what you need to do. You will find the application form in step 6.
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Your rights
You can apply for reimbursement of your expenses on infertility treatment provided in another EU/EEA country. You might be reimbursed a proportion of your expenses equivalent to what you would have received in Norway.
Regardless of whether you receive treatment in Norway or abroad, you will only be eligible for reimbursement of your expenses for a total of three cycles ('attempts') per child.
Terms of refund
You must be a woman who is married, cohabiting in a marriage-like relationship or single. You are considered single if you live alone or only with children you care for.
You and your partner, if you have one, must fulfil the conditions of the Biotechnology Act (only in Norwegian – lovdata.no) for the treatment of infertility and use treatment methods that are approved in Norway. For example, there are strict conditions for obtaining permission for PGT (preimplantation genetic testing). The PGT-A method, which analyzes the number of chromosomes, is not allowed in Norway.
If you are going to use donated eggs or sperm, the treating physician must select a suitable donor. You cannot choose yourself. We recommend that before you travel, you familiarize yourself with which methods are allowed and what conditions apply.
If you cannot document that you have received an offer from the public health service in Norway, Helfo must assess whether you would have received an offer in Norway. In this assessment, your health and age will be important factors. The upper age limit stipulated in the Biotechnology Act is 46.
As a general rule, you must be a member of the National Insurance Scheme to be eligible for reimbursement. If Helfo considers you to be residing in another EU/EEA country, you cannot receive reimbursement from Helfo for infertility treatment received there. Click here for important information about eligibility for this scheme.
Referral and childcare certificate of conduct (police certificate of conduct)
If you intend to travel abroad to receive healthcare, you must first obtain a referral from a healthcare professional in Norway.
You must also obtain a childcare certificate of conduct from the police in Norway. Send the certificate to Helfo together with your application for prior notification or reimbursement. If you are a couple, each of you must have a childcare certificate.
Prior notification
To reduce your financial risk, you have the option of applying to Helfo for prior notification. Find out more about this in the online article: "Hospital treatment and other specialist health services in EU/EEA countries". This also provides information about the risks of opting for treatment outside Norway.
Example
Tina and Henriette live together and would like to have a baby. They have a referral from their doctor, along with a letter from Telemark Hospital confirming that they are entitled to infertility treatment. The couple have friends who received treatment in Denmark, and they would like to try the same.
You must find a treatment provider
You must find a treatment provider from which you wish to receive treatment.
The treatment provider must have a permit to practice in the country in question and valid public authorisation. It is your responsibility to check that the practitioner has this. When you apply to Helfo for reimbursement, you may be asked to document that the doctor meets the requirements.
Example
Tina and Henriette have found a private fertility clinic in Denmark they would like to use. They contact the clinic and receive an offer showing the cost and detailing the treatment. Tina and Henriette decide to apply to Helfo for prior notification. This is their guarantee that their expenses will be covered. Their application is approved by Helfo.
Before the couple travels to Denmark, they make sure the treatment providers and the place of treatment they have contacted hold the necessary licences, authorisations and specialist approvals. They are aware that they might be asked to document that all the treatment providers they have seen are authorised to practise in Denmark.
What can you be covered for?
If you meet all the conditions, you can get reimbursed for expenses equivalent to the amount that the healthcare would have cost if it had been provided by the public health service in Norway.
The amount you get reimbursed is limited to what the treatment would have cost for the public health service in Norway. The costs are calculated based on Norwegian public rates:
- If you have paid more than the calculated cost in Norway, the reimbursement amount will be lower than what you have paid for the healthcare.
- If you have paid less than the calculated cost in Norway, the reimbursement amount will correspond to your actual expenses.
The treatment must be either equivalent or comparable to the treatment you would have received from the Norwegian public health service. In other words, you will not be eligible for reimbursement concerning expenses for any other or more treatment than the Norwegian specialist health service offers you.
Before commencing treatment, you may need to take fertility drugs. You will find more information here:
Example
Tina and Henriette go through with the infertility treatment equivalent to what they would have been offered in Norway. This means that they will be reimbursed for their expenses up to the amount the treatment would have cost within the Norwegian national health service.
Limited reimbursement of travel expenses
You will not be able to claim for more than if you had travelled to your nearest place of treatment in Norway.
You can claim the proportion of your travel expenses that corresponds to what you would have had to pay in Norway.
In Norway, the general rule is that you are claim your travel expenses at a standard rate per kilometre, regardless of the mode of transport you use. You must travel to the geographically closest location at which the health service can be provided. 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.
Eligible travel expenses can be claimed using this form:
(The form is in Norwegian, but click here for an English guide with instructions for filling out the form “Reiseregningsskjema".)
Send the claim form with the other documentation – see steps 5 and 6. If your application for reimbursement from Helfo is approved, Helfo will forward your travel expenses claim to the Norwegian regional health authorities' patient travel service (Pasientreiser / Patient Travel).
Example
Tina and Henriette live in Larvik. The nearest place of treatment to their home in Norway would have been Porsgrunn, so their travel expenses in Denmark will be reimbursed up to the equivalent of travelling from Larvik–Porsgrunn–Larvik.
Don't forget the documentation!
You must remember to obtain the correct documentation yourself.
When applying to Helfo for reimbursement, you need the following:
- a referral from a Norwegian healthcare provider dated before you received the healthcare
- a childcare certificate of conduct (police certificate of conduct)
- any summary care record or other records of previous infertility treatment in Norway
- a summary care record/discharge or other types of documentation that shows which treatment you have received
- original itemised bills
- original receipts or other proof of payment, such as a bank statement
- a form from the treating physician abroad: «Statement from the treating physician regarding reimbursement of assisted reproductive treatment (05-24a.06)» (see further down on this page)
- a personal statement form: «Personal statement from the applicant(s) – abroad (05-24.14)» (see further down on this page)
If you wish to apply for reimbursement of your expenses for any infertility drugs, you must include the following:
- prescription forms
- packaging or a copy of the packaging identifying the active ingredient
- original receipts itemising the name of the drug, number of packs and price
Forms
This is the form you must bring with you to have signed by the treating physician abroad:
If you do not use the digital form, you and your partner, if you have one, must complete, sign, and attach this personal statement to the reimbursement application:
Documentation and translation
For Helfo to consider the claim and reach a decision, the documentation must be comprehensible. This means that all documentation must initially be in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish or English. You should therefore try to get the documentation issued in one of these languages. If the documents are in another language, Helfo can, if necessary, ask you to have them translated. You must pay for the translation yourself. If you send in a translated document, you must also send in the original.
Example
The treatment proceeds as planned, but Tina and Henriette need to have a second cycle of treatment (another attempt). They receive a new offer from the fertility clinic for the second cycle and they apply for, and are granted, a new prior notification from Helfo. They complete the second cycle and make sure they bring back all the necessary documentation from Denmark.
Submit your application
Once your treatments have been completed, you can apply to Helfo for reimbursement. You must send in your application within six months.
You must send the application form and documentation to Helfo within 6 months of each treatment date. If you have not settled on the spot but received an invoice afterwards, we calculate the deadline from the invoice date instead of the treatment date. In this context, invoice means the first payment request issued by your treatment provider.
For details about the applicable documentation requirements, see "Don't forget the documentation".
The processing time is up to twelve weeks.
Paper form
If you cannot use our digital form, you can complete and send the following form along with the necessary documentation to Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg:
Example
Tina and Henriette completed two treatment cycles over a period of eight months and are now expecting a baby. They have submitted an application for reimbursement of their expenses on treatment along with the necessary documentation of their expenses. They made sure that they sent receipts to Helfo within six months from the date of each treatment.
Guidance Helsenorge
If you have any questions, please call Guidance Helsenorge: +47 23 32 70 00