Guide to benefit from services covered by the National Health Insurance House

Some psychological services are covered by the National Health Insurance House, under the conditions outlined in HG no. 400/2014, HG 205/2015. This means that your GP can refer you to a psychologist or psychiatrist.

Starting with 2014, the national health system covers a number of psychological services, including: diagnosis, psychological counselling, individual psychotherapy, group psychotherapy etc.

How it works:

• You need to be insured;
• You need to have a referral from your GP to see a psychiatrist;
• You will then need to make an appointment with the referred psychiatrist;
• If the psychiatrist believes that you would benefit from psychotherapy, they will write a referral letter to a psychologist so that you can make an appointment with the respective psychologist, subject to the number of free places covered by the National Health Insurance House.
• The National Health Insurance House requires that the psychiatrist and psychologist work interdependently, i.e. the psychiatrist will refer patients (free of charge) only to the psychologist they work with, and the psychologist can only offer free consultations to the patients referred by the psychiatrist they work with.

Documents needed to access free psychological services:

• Referral letter from your GP or another specialist who has a contract with the National Health Insurance House.
• The referral letter must be for psychiatry and needs to have been issued within maximum 30 days before the consultation date;
• The referral letter will be addressed to doctors who have signed a collaboration contract with a psychologist for the provision of psychological services, and these services will be provided free of charge based on a request, i.e. a medical letter, from these specialists (in some cases, the doctors can also be specialised in neurology or diabetes, not just psychiatry, depending on the patient);
• Health card attesting that you are insured by the Social Insurance System;
• ID card.

Conclusions

• Not all psychological clinics are affiliated with the National Health Insurance House;
• Some clinics offer some services pro bono, even to those without insurance;
• In general, we recommend that you contact the private clinics near you to ask whether they have a contract with the National Health Insurance House and what types of free services they offer;
• On the website www.la-psiholog.ro you can find almost 4000 psychologists, psychiatrists, and psychotherapists from all around the country. Though not all of them mention whether the services they offer are free for those insured, it is possible that many of them are, such that it is worth contacting them.