Health Insurance EU Directive re treatment in other EU countries

Implementation of above seems to have escaped many and is only getting publicity recently. Heard on radio that Sunday Business Post had a full page on it. It seems a person has to foot all expenses first but will be refunded the hospital costs by HSE in a short period. Wondering what are the negatives to this scheme?

Here's the link to discussion on Sean O'Rourke, 15th June 2015.
There's 2 schemes, the Treatment Abroad Scheme, and the Cross Border Directive.

[broken link removed]

There's also a comparison of the two + EHIC on www.hse.ie. I'm hopeless at pdf links.

Snowyb

Thanks for that link snowyb. When at the hse.ie website, do a search in the top right, key in 'treatment' and it will suggest 'treatment abroad'. Click on the second suggested doc for the comparison referred to above. However, it seems that the hse page has not been updated for the latest EU directive as it refers to the former E112.

The new scheme provides for re-imbursement up to the level that would apply in the public system here, i.e. the accepted cost of the procedure, or has been approved for similar procedures abroad, less the €75 per night charge levied here. Travel and accommodation expenses at own exspense. The former Treatment Abroad scheme did not allow self-referral whereas my reading of news articles on the latest EU directive suggest that self-referral is now acceptable under the latest scheme.