“However, this certainly does not mean that the spa will refuse clients of health insurance companies at the beginning of next year. They will be treated in the same way as before,” she told Deník.

Karel Kalivoda, director of the Ensana company operating seven spa hotels in Mariánské Lázně, confirmed her words.

“We accept and will continue to accept cross-insureds. Rising energy prices obviously affect us, but we will solve it in a different way than by limiting our clients,” he told Deník. As he added, they plan to close, for example, in the coldest part of winter, spaces that require energy and are provided to clients by hotels, where it is more economical.

Other spa resorts also do not intend to limit the number of “cross patients”. “In the coming year, we will accept insurance companies for restrictions, just like before,” confirmed patient Alena Šmerdová from Lázní Jáchymov.

Spas in the Czech Republic:

Typical care

The fact that spas are interested in these clients is also evident from the statement of Jan Bodnár, deputy director of the General Health Insurance Company. “Since the beginning of the year, we have been registering requests to establish a contractual relationship from providers of spa care and the provision of care to a so-called insurance company,” he told Deník.

Spa care, provided to the patient as a necessary part of the treatment process, is recommended by the attending physician, confirmed by the reviewing physician and paid for by the patient’s relevant health insurance company. The proposal for treatment in the spa is submitted on a pre-printed form of the health insurance company by the registering general practitioner or attending physician.

If the insurance company approves comprehensive spa treatment lasting three or four weeks, it will pay for medical procedures, accommodation and meals. If he “knocks off” contribution care, you will only pay for medical services, while the client pays for accommodation and food himself.

A person to whom a doctor does not recommend a spa and does not submit a proposal to an insurance company can go to the spa as a self-payer, regardless of their health condition – but in that case, they pay themselves. Just like the one who accompanies a patient to the spa. Those interested can also attend the spa procedures on an outpatient basis, i.e. without being accommodated in the spa house.

Tens of thousands of patients

According to the Institute of Health Data and Statistics of the Czech Republic, almost 220,000 people visited Czech spas last year, of which nearly 84,000 were treated at the expense of public health insurance. There are 93 registered providers of spa treatment and rehabilitation care in the Czech Republic.