Get medical aid

What

If you’re ill please contact a general practitioner (Familienarzt) near you. You can find a general practitioner under “Arzt für Allgemeinmedizin” and dentists under “Zahnarzt” at (in German): www.herold.at or at www.docfinder.at. General practitioners are your initial point of contact; they carry out general examinations and offer simple blood tests. They’ll refer you to a specialist or outpatient clinic or hospital, if needed.

Good to know

You’ll get your health insurance card by post within the next 2 weeks of your first registration to the state medical insurance.

If you have to stay during the night in a hospital, you need to pay a daily contribution for each day you stay. The treatment is for free as long as you’re insured. If you‘re pregnant, you’ll receive free medical aid even if you do not have medical insurance and you’ll not be asked to pay a daily conntribution fee.

Steps

STEP 1: Check your insurance. If you’re covered under the state medical insurance (Gebietskrankenkasse – GKK), you need to find a doctor that has a contract with it. If you have a different medical insurance company, you can check which doctor nearby accepts your insurance policy.

STEP 2: Check their working hours and if they accept new patients and bring always your health insurance card. If you’re covered by the state medical insurance, you don’t need to do anything else. In case you have a private insurance, make sure you have the insurance policy number. They might issue an invoice with the cost of the medical examination. Once paid, you can ask for reimbursement from the insurance company.

STEP 3: If you need to visit a specialist, first you need to go to the general practitioner. If necessary he/she will give a medical note/referral (Überweisungs-/Zuweisungsschein) and recommend you a specialist.

STEP 4: Set an appointment in advance via phone or email. They will ask for your health insurance card and the note of referral from general practitioners.

Where

The Austrian Medical Association or your state medical association offer listings of medical doctors by district, field of expertise, sex, opening hours and foreign language skills (in German): www.aerztekammer.at.