More Estonian patients leave hospital bills unpaid after fee rise
Saturday 17th October 2026 on 17:45 in
Estonia
More patients are falling behind on hospital bills after patient fees rose about 18 months ago, ERR reports. Hospitals try to collect overdue payments themselves for a few months before referring them to debt collectors. Patients with unpaid bills can still receive emergency care, but cannot see a specialist.
The visit fee rose from 5 euros to 20 euros, while the daily hospital bed charge increased from 2.50 euros to 5 euros. At North Estonia Medical Centre, the number of patients in debt has since doubled and the total amount owed has tripled.
About 70% of the overdue bills there are for hospital bed charges, and 30% are visit fees, mostly for emergency department visits, said service manager Anneli Habicht. She said roughly half the cases involve people simply forgetting to pay, while the rest do not intend to pay.
Habicht said older adults nearing retirement and young adults are more likely to owe money, and men fall behind more often than women.
Narva Hospital had nearly 2,200 patients in debt last year. The sums are generally small and are paid after a reminder. In the first nine months of this year, the number of debtors rose by about 25%, hospital head Üllar Lanno said. The hospital has not seen widespread efforts to evade payment or a need to take forceful action through debt collectors.
Tartu University Hospital has not faced the same problem, said board member Joel Starkopf. Patients’ payments account for less than 3% of the hospital’s treatment revenue, which mainly comes from its contract with the Estonian Health Insurance Fund. Of the half a million people who attend outpatient appointments each year, about 200 to 400 need reminders to pay their bills, he said.
Debt collection company Julianus Inkasso said the number of claims from hospitals had risen by a few percentage points, although some healthcare providers had submitted 10% more claims. More than half of debtors pay within a year of receiving a letter from the company, but they must also cover interest and a collection fee of up to 30 euros. A 20-euro fee could rise to about 55 euros, the company’s chief executive Merle Laurimäe said.