Glossary · Costs and insurance · also: cost guarantee, guarantee of cost coverage, benefit confirmation
A cost approval (Kostengutsprache) is the written commitment of an insurer or authority to cover certain costs — before the service is provided. For patient transport it is particularly useful for long journeys, repatriation from abroad and expensive series, because it makes clear who pays what.
Also called: cost guarantee · guarantee of cost coverage · benefit confirmation · health insurer’s cost approval
For a single, short transport within Basel, a cost approval is usually not needed: the basic insurance rules are clear, and the invoice is submitted afterwards. It is different with larger amounts. Typical cases are repatriation from abroad, journeys to distant rehabilitation clinics, transfers across cantonal borders or long series of dialysis and therapy journeys.
Here it is worth checking beforehand with your supplementary insurance, travel insurance or assistance organisation. A written cost approval prevents you from being left with a large bill after the transport.
The request is usually made by the insured person, a relative, the treating doctor or the hospital’s social services. The insurer generally needs the medical prescription or a medical report, details of the starting point, destination and type of transport, and a quote from the transport company.
Mobimed will tell you the price of a planned journey in advance on 0800 670 670 (free). With this information, the insurer can assess the request. Allow some time for this; for repatriation from abroad, insurers and assistance organisations often coordinate the process themselves.
A cost approval is not a guarantee for all costs. It applies to the service described and usually up to a certain amount. If the transport changes — different type of transport, different destination, additional waiting time — the insurer should be informed. So read the approval carefully and keep it together with the invoice.
With basic insurance, there is normally no advance approval for transport; the statutory rules apply there, with 50 per cent and at most CHF 500 per year.
If there is a discrepancy despite the approval, for example because the actual costs turn out higher, a calm conversation with the insurer is worthwhile. A short explanation from the transport company can often clarify why, for example, waiting time or a different route was necessary.
The more complete the documents, the faster the answer. Enclose the medical prescription or a medical report with the request, and state the pick-up point and destination, date, type of transport and the transport company’s price. For repatriation from abroad, insurers also need details of the local hospital and of fitness to travel, confirmed by the treating doctors.
Make a note of whom you spoke to at the insurer and when. A verbal commitment on the phone is helpful but does not replace the written cost approval. If time is short, ask explicitly whether the insurer can send an approval by email — many now do so within a short time.
A couple from Reinach are on holiday at Lake Garda when the husband ends up in hospital after a fall. After initial treatment, he is to return to Basel lying down. His wife contacts their travel insurance, which, after consulting the doctors, issues a cost approval for the ground-based repatriation. Only then is the journey firmly planned.
With our medical repatriation service, we organise ground-based return transport home or to a clinic for further treatment – within Switzerland and internationally.
Learn more: Medical repatriation & journeys abroad
On a hospital transfer, we take patients from one institution to the next: from a hospital to another clinic, from an acute hospital to a care home or from a clinic back to hospital.
Learn more: Hospital transfers
With our rehab transport, we take you to the rehabilitation clinic after a hospital stay and back home again afterwards – by stretcher, in a wheelchair or seated, with your luggage and aids.
Learn more: Rehab transport
Dialysis transport is not a one-off matter but a routine: usually three times a week, often for years.
Learn more: Dialysis transportNo. For normal journeys with a medical prescription, you submit the invoice to your health insurer afterwards. A cost approval is worthwhile for large amounts, repatriation from abroad and long series.
Usually the insured person or their relatives, often with support from the doctor or the hospital’s social services. Mobimed provides the price details on request.
Client, patient, appointment — one form that goes directly to our dispatch team. Prefer to call? That works too.
Recognition by the Swiss Interassociation for Rescue Services (IVR/IAS) is not a self-assessment but the result of an external audit of vehicles, equipment, training and procedures. Mobimed was the first patient transport provider in north-western Switzerland to receive it — and still holds it today.
Check the certificate in the IVR register