State reimbursement for public health care

The purpose of state reimbursement is to compensate public health care or the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) for treatment costs when treatment has been given to customers who do not have a municipality of residence in Finland and whose healthcare costs are the responsibility of another state that applies EU legislation. This requires that the costs have not been charged to the customers themselves or another party, such as a travel insurance company or other private insurance provider.


Kela pays the state reimbursement to public healthcare and the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS). Instructions for applying for state reimbursement are available on Kela’s website in Finnish.

State reimbursement is paid to public health care for:

  • costs of treatment deemed necessary by a health care professional
  • costs of basic health care and specialised medical care
  • services free of charge to the patient, such as maternity and child health clinic services and health centre doctor’s appointments of persons under 18 years old
  • costs of urgent social services

The compensation cannot exceed the amount of the costs arising from providing the service, less the client fees charged to the customer coming from abroad.

State reimbursement is paid for the hospital transfer of registered patients in Finnish public health care in the following cases:

  • Another EU or EEA country or Switzerland is responsible for the patient’s treatment costs and the patient is transferred from one public health care unit to another in Finland.
  • The patient lives in another Nordic country and is transferred to the country of residences for further treatment.

State reimbursement is paid for the costs of interpretation arranged for a patient in treatment if a health care professional in public health care has deemed it necessary.

Kela also pays state reimbursement to the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) in cases where the medical care costs of a university student who has received treatment are covered by another EU or EEA country, Switzerland, the United Kingdom or Northern Ireland. Kela pays the Finnish Student Health Service (FSHS) state reimbursement for costs that are caused by providing the health care service given to the university student.