Assisted reproductive treatment in the EU/EEA
You are entitled to reimbursement of your expenses for assisted reproductive treatment/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 claim form in step 6.
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Your rights
You are entitled to claim reimbursement of your expenses on assisted reproductive treatment/infertility treatment provided in another EU/EEA country. You can claim for expenses up to the amount you would have been entitled to in Norway.
You must be a woman who is married, cohabiting in a marriage-like relationship or single. You will only be considered to be single if you do not live with any other adults.
You, and your partner if you have one, must fulfil the conditions for the treatment of childlessness set out in the Biotechnology Act.
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.
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. Learn more about involuntary childlessness, eligible types of treatment and the definition of 'a cycle'.
In order to be reimbursed for your expenses for treatment, you must be a member of the Norwegian National Insurance scheme. In many cases, the scheme also applies to family members.
If you are considered to be resident in another EU/EEA country, you will not be entitled to receive support from Helfo for treatment in the country in which you are considered to be resident. 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, which you should then send to Helfo together with your application for prior notification or reimbursement.
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.
Before commencing treatment, you may need to take fertility drugs. For more information about reimbursement of expenses for medicines, click here.
Example
Tina and Louise live together and would like to have a baby. They have a referral from their doctor, along with a letter from Vestfold Hospital confirming that they are entitled to infertility treatment. The couple have friends who received treatment in Denmark, and they would like to try having treatment there.
You must find a treatment provider
It is up to you to find a treatment provider in another EU/EEA country.
Once you have decided on a hospital or clinic abroad, you must verify that the treatment provider is an authorised specialist and holds an official licence in the country concerned. This means that the treatment provider must be entitled to practise in the country in which the treatment will be provided. It is your responsibility to obtain documentation to prove this.
You must also document that the place of treatment or the treatment provider is licensed to provide assisted reproductive treatment/infertility treatment in accordance with that country's legislation.
Example
Tina and Louise 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 Louise 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 will need to bring documentation back to Norway with them as proof 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 claim reimbursement for expenses equivalent to the amount that the healthcare would have cost if it had been provided by the national health service in Norway.
You should therefore bear in mind that the reimbursement amount may be lower than what you paid abroad. If your expenses are lower than the estimated cost in Norway, the amount reimbursed will match 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.
Example
Tina and Louise 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 Louise live in Holmestrand. The nearest place of treatment to their home in Norway would have been Oslo, so their travel expenses in Denmark will be reimbursed up to the equivalent of travelling from Holmestrand-Oslo-Holmestrand.
Don't forget the documentation!
It is important to ensure that you obtain all the necessary documentation from the place of treatment abroad.
This is the documentation you must send to Helfo after you have received the treatment:
- referral from Norwegian healthcare provider
- childcare certificate of conduct (police certificate of conduct)
- any summary care record or other records of previous assisted reproductive treatment/infertility treatment in Norway
- summary care record/discharge notes from abroad
- name of healthcare personnel who treated you (if treatment was not in a hospital)
- original itemised bills
- original receipts or other proof of payment, such as a bank statement
- personal statement form: «Personal statement from the claimant and partner - abroad (05-24.14)» (see further down on this page)
- form from the treating physician abroad: «Statement from the treating physician regarding reimbursement of assisted reproductive treatment (05-22.23)» English (see further down on this page)
If you wish to claim reimbursement of your expenses for any infertility drugs, you must include
- 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 personal statement you must enclose with your reimbursement claim:
This is the form you must arrange to have signed by the treating physician abroad:
Documentation and translation
In order 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 Louise have 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 claim form 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 claim processing time is up to twelve weeks.
Paper form
If you are unable to use our digital form, you can complete the following form instead:
Send the form along with the necessary documentation to: Helfo, Postboks 2415, 3104 Tønsberg.
Example
Tina and Louise completed two treatment cycles over a period of eight months, and are now expecting a baby. They have submitted a claim 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.