Rehabilitation abroad is not a rare case
A woman shares her experience to draw attention to the problem and inform parents for whom it is relevant about possible treatment nuances.
The State Health Insurance Fund announces that in 2025 there were 262 such requests, and the year before 230. About 405 thousand euros were refunded to families, a quarter more than in 2024. The largest amount compensated to one person was 21.6 thousand euros.
The Health Insurance Fund itself indicates that medical rehabilitation services are most often compensated, and Poland is mentioned first on the list of countries.
The same trip, three times different amount
The Arnold Charity and Support Fund, established for a six-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, applied for expense reimbursement three times in the past two years. All three trips were to the same institution in Poland and of the same duration, eleven days each.
The refunded amounts differed almost threefold because the referrals differed.
With a referral from a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor for secondary inpatient medical rehabilitation, payment is made for each bed day. From July 1, 2026, the base price for a child’s bed day is 94.35 euros, for the accompanying person 18.87 euros, so eleven days amount to 1,245 euros.
With a referral from a social pediatrician for early rehabilitation of developmental disorders in children, which applies only to children up to seven years old, the same trip is reimbursed differently: the rehabilitation itself is not paid per days, but as a whole treatment case according to the related diagnosis groups method, and the accompanying person’s bed days are added. In the Fund’s case, this was 3,692.36 euros per case and 207.57 euros for eleven accompanying person bed days, totaling almost 3,900 euros.
The difference for the same trip is about 2,650 euros.
In both cases, this is the upper limit, not a guaranteed amount. Compensation never exceeds the actual family expenses: if less was paid abroad than the same service costs in Lithuania, the amount actually paid is refunded. The case price also depends on the diagnosis and applied procedures, so it may be different for another child.
Where families lose money
In Lithuania, prior approval to be treated in another European Union country is not required for either outpatient or inpatient services. European Union law allows countries to introduce such a requirement, but Lithuania has not done so.
This is convenient but has a cost, which families are also not told about. There is a second way, the S2 document, by which the treatment abroad is paid by that country’s system, and the patient does not receive a bill. S2 is requested in advance, through a university hospital, and is not issued retroactively. A family that leaves without it cannot change their mind upon return.
Other conditions are also strict.
Services must be provided based on a referral from a Lithuanian doctor, issued by an institution that has a contract with the Health Insurance Fund, and issued before starting to receive services. The contract is important, not whether the institution is public or private.
Compensation can only be applied for within one year from the provision of services. Travel, accommodation, meals, and translations are never compensated.
The state covers about half
The Health Insurance Fund compensates only the healthcare service itself and only as much as it would cost in Lithuania. In practice, the state’s reimbursed portion covers about half of the total trip cost. The remaining half is borne by the family, and families that have a fund cover it from collected donations.
Therefore, compensation does not eliminate the need to seek funds; it only reduces it by half. And that is why it is important that families know about this opportunity and that the referral is appropriate. For a family unaware, the same trip costs twice as much.
“I myself learned about rehabilitation in Poland from another mother in the hospital corridor. Not from a doctor or the Health Insurance Fund. That you can get three times more with a different referral was also discovered by her, traveling herself. I confirmed it in practice. No one lies and no one hides anything. It’s just that no one is responsible for explaining it to us,” says the fund’s director Ilona Reznik.
Practical information
The fund has written the entire procedure on an open page: what kind of referral is needed, how to get it, what documents are required, how and where to submit them, and how long payment takes.
https://arnoldasgali.lt/ligoniu-kasu-kompensacija-uzsienyje/
The rehabilitation itself in Poland is also described separately: how to order, how much it costs, and where to stay.
https://arnoldasgali.lt/reabilitacija-lenkijoje/
The information on the pages is verified with the current versions of legal acts: orders of the Minister of Health No. V-957 (cross-border healthcare cost reimbursement), No. V-1738 (medical rehabilitation assignment), No. 728 (early rehabilitation of children’s developmental disorders), No. V-636 (referrals), and No. V-1630 (base prices).
The woman says that the Arnold Charity and Support Fund was established in 2023 in Vilnius.
The fund was created because the state funds do not cover the rehabilitation volume needed for six-year-old Arnold, who has cerebral palsy. Annual expenses amount to about 30 thousand euros, and the family has to raise most of it themselves.
The second activity direction arose naturally. The information they had to figure out themselves is now publicly written by the fund so that other families do not have to repeat the same searches.
The fund’s annual reports are published publicly: arnoldasgali.lt/ataskaitos
