The Provision of telemedicine services Sample Clauses

The Provision of telemedicine services. Since telemedicine is the provision of healthcare services at a distance, including in another jurisdiction, in another EU Member State or beyond, it falls within the scope of the EU provisions on freedom to provide services of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) (Art. 56). As a consequence, citizens have the freedom to seek and receive telemedicine services in another EU Member State. Any obstacle to the freedom to provide telemedicine services across borders is prohibited, unless it is justified by an imperative reason to protect a public interest objective, for example to protect public health. Such justified hurdles may not exceed what is objectively necessary to protect the public interest objective, and it must not be possible to achieve the same result by a less restrictive measure. Administrative hurdles and those involving reimbursement may be obstacles in this regard (European Commission 2012b). The cross-border care Directive (Directive 2011/24/EU) aimed to provide legal clarity on the application of the Treaty provisions on the free movement of services to patients wishing to receive reimbursement for care obtained in an EU Member State other than the Member State where they are covered for healthcare costs. The rules on reimbursement for cross-border care defined in this Directive also apply to telemedicine services. The Directive states that, in principle, the Member State where a patient is covered for healthcare has to reimburse the costs of cross-border healthcare if the healthcare in question is among the benefits to which the insured person is entitled in his Member State of affiliation. The Member State of affiliation may impose on an insured person seeking reimbursement of the costs of cross-border healthcare the same conditions, eligibility criteria and regulatory and administrative formalities as it would impose if this healthcare were provided in its territory (Art. 7). It should nevertheless be noted that the way in which the cross-border care Directive should apply to telemedicine services remains unclear. In its report on the operation of Directive 2011/24/EU in 2015 (European Commission, 2015), the European Commission provides the example of consultations with general practitioners at a distance, which are reimbursed in some Member States, whilst not in others. If a patient from a Member State where such consultations are not provided or funded has a consultation via telemedicine with a GP in a Member Stat...