NICOSIA — Beginning Oct. 2, the Health Insurance Organization (HIO) will assume responsibility for managing requests by General Healthcare System (GESY) beneficiaries seeking medical treatment abroad.
According to the announcement, eligible patients may apply for care outside Cyprus only if the required services fall within GESY’s coverage and cannot be provided domestically due to lack of specialization, equipment, infrastructure, or timely access based on medical necessity.
Requests from non-GESY beneficiaries will continue to be handled by the Ministry of Health’s Subsidized Patients Department.
The HIO clarified that treatment abroad will not be approved if the procedures are experimental, not recognized by conventional medicine, involve only drug administration, relate to telemedicine, or have already been performed prior to the request.
Certain services—such as specialized lab tests, prosthetic limbs, and ocular prostheses—will remain under the Ministry’s management, even for GESY beneficiaries.
Applications must be submitted exclusively by specialist physicians through the GESY IT system. Requests made directly by patients or through other channels will not be accepted.
Cases will be categorized by urgency, with evaluation timelines determined accordingly. Treating physicians will assign the appropriate category, which will then be reviewed by the organization.