The Norwegian Health Economics Administration (Norwegian: Helseøkonomiforvaltningen HELFO), commonly known by its Norwegian acronym HELFO is a governmental institution, subordinate to Norwegian Directorate for Health and Social Affairs. HELFO is in charge of The regular GP scheme, which entitles one to have a regular GP, and issuance of The European Health Insurance Card (Europeisk helsetrygdkort).
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Budget
Its annual budget is about 23 billion Norwegian kroner (NOK), which includes direct payments to various health service providers, individual reimbursment for certain medicines, dental services and health services abroad. The institution currently has about 600 employees distributed among the Main Office, 6 Regional Offices, HELFO Patient Referral Unit and HELFO Service centre.
General practitioners
HELFO organizes the GP scheme (fastlegeordningen), which ensures that all residents in Norway can seek a medical consultation with a general practitioner. The scheme is voluntary. Residents are entitled to swap their GP if they wish, for example if they wish to be listed with a GP in different municipality to where they live. The GP can be changed on the Internet.
European health insurance card
A European health insurance card entitles the holder to health services when staying temporarily in another EU/EEA country or in Switzerland. When the insurance card is presented to the person/institution treating the holder, he or she will be entitled to medical treatment in the country he or she is staying in on the same conditions as the people living there. This also means that he or she must pay the same patient charges as them.
To be entitled to a European health insurance card, the primary condition is that one is a member of the Norwegian National Insurance scheme, and that the person is a Norwegian citizen or a citizen of another EU/EEA country or Switzerland. The European health insurance card is a plastic card the size of a regular bank card. The scheme also covers family members, i.e. spouses and children under the age of 25. They are entitled to European health insurance cards regardless of citizenship and of whether they are members of the National Insurance scheme. Each family member must carry their own European health insurance card. The insurance card is issued for three years, provided that conditions are still met.
Patient charges and exemption card
Members of the Norwegian National Insurance scheme, only pay a fixed part of the cost of public health services, called patient charges. This applies to medical treatment, buying medicines on a refundable prescription, physiotherapy, seeing a psychologist and travel expenses to consultations and treatment appointments. If a person has paid a certain amount in patient charges, he or she is eligible for an exemption card. This means he or she is exempt from paying patient charges for the rest of the calendar year. There are two types of exemption cards. The amounts are set annually by the Norwegian parliament, the Storting.
The exemption card for user fee group 1 covers approved patient charges paid to doctors, psychologists and outpatient clinics and for x-rays, patient travel and blue prescription medicine and equipment. The exemption card for user fee 2 covers approved patient charges paid for physiotherapy, certain dental diseases, approved rehabilitation institutions and travel for treatment abroad organised by Oslo University Hospital - Rikshospitalet HF.