Reimbursement for the terminally ill

Reimbursement for the terminally ill is granted to people who are dying. Reimbursement for the terminally ill means that all medicines prescribed on prescription by a doctor are fully reimbursed.

Terminally ill people who are admitted to hospital in their final days of life receive medicine free of charge while in hospital. Reimbursement for the terminally ill can be applied for by a doctor on behalf of someone who decides to spend his or her final days of life at home or in a hospice.

The criteria for being granted reimbursement for the terminally ill provide that a doctor must assess that the patient is dying and is expected to live only for a short period time, a short period of time being a few weeks to a few months. It is also a criterion that any hospital treatment intended to cure the patient is considered hopeless.

The reimbursement is granted for a period of one year.

It takes one to two working days for the Danish Medicines Agency to review an application for reimbursement for the terminally ill.

If you don’t hear from us within a short period of time, it may be because we need more information from your doctor before we can decide if you can be granted reimbursement. The review is paused until we hear from your doctor.

The reply will be in your e-Boks

If the doctor’s application for reimbursement for the terminally ill is approved, we will send the approval to your e-Boks. In case you have been exempted from receiving information in e-Boks, the approval will be sent by ordinary post.

The pharmacy is informed directly by the Danish Medicines Agency.

What does the grant cover?

The grant entitles you to full reimbursement of any medicine prescribed on prescription. It also covers medicinal cannabis included in the medicinal cannabis pilot programme.

Reimbursement for the terminally is not available for nutritional products such as ‘Nutridrik’, food supplements such as ‘Unikalk’ or healthcare aids such as adult nappies since these are not medicinal products. It may be possible in some municipalities to apply for coverage of this type of expenses.

Information to doctors about reimbursement for the terminally ill

Reimbursement for the terminally ill is granted only to people who are dying or patients who are expected to live only for a short period of time. A patient is not entitled to reimbursement for the terminally ill on the sole basis of a malignant diagnosis or other serious disease. The Danish Medicines Agency must be informed in writing if a patient is unexpectedly recovering and thus no longer meets the eligibility conditions for reimbursement for the terminally ill. If the patient still meets the conditions for reimbursement for the terminally ill after one year, a new application must be submitted.

The start date of granted reimbursement for the terminally ill is calculated from the date when the Danish Medicines Agency received the application minus four days, i.e. reimbursement is granted with a four-day retrospective effect. In special circumstances, the reimbursement may be granted with a retrospective effect of six months.

We advise doctors to provide their email address in the application for us to send a notification when we have reviewed the application.