Azorean patients will benefit from a new reimbursement scheme, published in the Official Journal today, which introduces fairer social criteria in order to strengthen the support to those who are most in need.

Under this new scheme, the amount of financial support will no longer be awarded in accordance to the travel time since the allowance granted to patients will be based on their income.

The changes to the scheme will be especially reflected in the increase of the daily allowance, which takes into consideration the income of patients and not the duration of the travel.

A patient placed in the first income bracket (lower income) will now be entitled to a daily allowance of 45.53 Euros and the accompanying person 20 Euros. The maximum daily reimbursement for land transport is set at 10 Euros.

As for the daily reimbursement for patients with higher income, the amount is stipulated at 27.21 Euros. Under the current scheme, the daily reimbursement was set at 24.27 Euros for travel periods less than 30 days.

The document also provides an increase in the support to pregnant women or parturient women who need to leave their island of residency for surveillance or during the period immediately before delivery. In this specific case, the reimbursement will be made in accordance with the highest level of support.

The Special Supplement for Oncology Patients will be later regulated in a specific document.
These measures also cover accompanying persons, who will become eligible for a daily allowance that is equivalent to that granted to patients during hospital admissions.

Children under the age of three are entitled to two accompanying persons; children and youngsters aged between three and 18 will be always entitled to travel with an accompanying person.

In addition, patients will have the opportunity to freely choose their accommodation insofar as the daily allowance already covers this expense. However, there will always be the possibility to provide accommodation for patients, which cannot exceed 60% of the reimbursement amount for patients placed in lower income brackets.

The document also establishes the right of patients to choose the regional hospital where they want to receive care, taking into account the maximum response time guaranteed by referral hospitals.

These new measures are in line with the goals defined in the Programme of the XI Government, which aims to improve the support provided to patients of the Regional Health Service when they are required to travel on their island of residency, to another island or outside the archipelago.