Thank you for your request for information about the following:

I am writing to ask how much the average cost of a claim made under the Global Health Insurance Card / European Health Insurance Card was in the past year. I would also like to know how many claims were made in total.

You clarified your request as follows:

• Are you referring to claims made to the UK by the country that the treatment took place (where the UK GHIC / UK EHIC was accepted), or direct claims made by the customer (where the customer paid for their treatment)? - I mean UK residents who went abroad and received treatment then claimed back the cost in the UK

• By “average cost of a claim”, do you mean the cost of treatment claimed for or the cost accepted and reimbursed? - Cost accepted and reimbursed

• Are you referring to only claims submitted to the UK, or also claims that the UK have submitted to other countries under the EHIC? - Just UK residents who went abroad and has treatment then claimed the cost back when they got home.

• Are you referring to claims that have been submitted within the last year, or claims where the treatment took place within the last year? By “in the past year”, is this May 2022 – May 2023? - Whatever timeline is most convenient for you. I just need to know the average payment made over a recent 12-month period.

Your request was received on 22nd May, and I am dealing with it under the terms of the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

Response

In the period of 1st May 2022 to 30th April 2023, the average cost of a direct claim payment made was £325.98. A total of 2,325 direct claim payments were made.

This data includes all direct claims paid under the UK GHIC, UK EHIC and S2 entitlements. We are unable to provide data for direct claims paid solely under the UK GHIC and UK EHIC.

Please note that this request and our response is published on our Freedom of Information disclosure log at:

https://opendata.nhsbsa.net/dataset/foi-01183

Data Queries

If you have any queries regarding the data provided, or if you plan on publishing the data, please contact foirequests@nhsbsa.nhs.uk ensuring you quote the above reference. This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

If you plan on producing a press or broadcast story based upon the data, please contact communicationsteam@nhsbsa.nhs.uk This is important to ensure that the figures are not misunderstood or misrepresented.

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http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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“NHSBSA Copyright 2023” This information is licenced under the terms of the Open Government Licence:

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/

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