The Health Insurance Institute (ZZZS) received 85 claims for refund of costs of health services abroad in the first ten months of the year, which compares to as many as 149 in November and the beginning of December.

More than half of the claims over the last two months is for electromyography, a technique for evaluating the functioning of nerves and muscles by their electrical activity, Eva Godina of the ZZZS has told the STA.

The official does not attribute the increase in claims to the implementation of the EU directive, as obtaining services abroad at the cost of ZZZS had been possible before. She says the reason is that people are better informed about their rights, owing to the presentation of the directive in the media.

"Many people did not know they can go abroad even now and then claim reimbursement of costs of specialised outpatient services. We have refunding these costs since 2010," Godina says, adding that people had not been aware of that and had been waiting for the implementation of the directive.

Despite the surge in claims, the costs have not increased much, considering the overall budget of the health purse manager. ZZZS's cost for 200 patients treated abroad is roughly EUR 50,000. "This is certainly not an amount that would destabilise the system," Godina argues.

The official finds it hard to speculate about future trends, but says that if the Slovenian healthy system remains stable, there is no reason for people to seek health services abroad, as everyone prefers to be treated at home.

There are certain services abroad the ZZZS needs to approve first to reimburse the costs, such as inpatient treatment or highly specialised health services. The Health Ministry is yet to decree the list of such services.