ÖGK payment requests: Austria health insurance sends thousands bills for medical transports

ÖGK payment requests: Austria health insurance sends thousands bills for medical transports ÖGK is sending about 87,000 payment requests for medical transports. Who pays, how much, who is exempt and how instalments above €151 work in Austria. Topics: News, Healthcare, Economy.

Austria’s largest health insurer, ÖGK (Österreichische Gesundheitskasse), is sending out around 87,000 bills for Krankentransport (medical transports) from mid-October 2026. If you used an insured transport to reach treatment or therapy since July 2025, a payment request may land in your mailbox. The invoices cover the second quarter of 2026 — rides between April and June — and they arrive in batches, weeks after the actual trips, because the fund bills transports quarterly. Here is what the fee costs, who is exempt, how long you have to pay, and what to do if the amount is large.

Why ÖGK is sending payment requests for medical transports

Since July 2025, patients insured with ÖGK pay an Unkostenbeitrag (expense contribution) for planned (planbare) Krankentransporte — one or two times the Rezeptgebühr (prescription fee). The bill does not come after each ride; instead the fund counts every trip in a quarter and issues a single payment request. As krone.at reports, the second batch for Q2 2026 goes out from mid-October: online invoices first, paper letters within the following two weeks.

According to vienna.at, citing ÖGK, roughly 87,000 letters are being sent, about 5% of them (some 4,000) delivered electronically via e-Zustellung. The first batch — for Q1 — went out in July 2026, when the fund mailed around 90,000 requests, as heute.at wrote at the time.

How much a medical transport costs and how the fee is counted

The amount depends on whether a paramedic accompanied the ride. Without a paramedic you pay €7.55; with one, €15.10 — exactly one or two Rezeptgebühr. As gesundheit.gv.at confirms, the prescription fee in 2026 is €7.55. The contribution is charged per trip, but the fund counts no more than 28 rides per calendar year.

The totals add up fast: as vienna.at notes, ten rides with a paramedic come to €151 — conveniently the same threshold above which ÖGK allows instalments. Patients who travel regularly for therapy (physiotherapy, dialysis, radiation) can therefore receive surprisingly large quarterly bills even though each individual ride is cheap.

Who does not pay the medical transport contribution

Medically necessary and urgent transports stay free. Only planned trips without an acute medical reason are chargeable. As krone.at underlines, several groups are exempt: passengers of emergency and time-critical transports, children, and people who are exempt from the Rezeptgebühr — for example chronically ill patients for whom the fee is waived on medical grounds.

The distinction is straightforward: a scheduled trip to regular therapy is a planbarer Transport and incurs the fee; a ride by ambulance when your condition acutely worsens is medically necessary and remains free. If you are unsure whether a trip falls under the rule, check the transport order in your documents or ask the fund — a recurring €7.55 or €15.10 per ride is the tell-tale sign of a planned transport.

Payment deadline and instalments

You have 30 days from receiving the letter to pay. If you miss the deadline, the fund first sends a reminder (Zahlungserinnerung), and continued silence triggers a formal demand with extra costs. Payment works by ordinary bank transfer to the details on the invoice or through the MeinÖGK online portal.

If the outstanding amount exceeds €151, ÖGK allows an instalment plan (Ratenzahlung) — as krone.at explains, the agreement can be arranged by phone or via the portal. That matters for chronically ill patients: a year of regular dialysis or rehabilitation rides easily runs into several hundred euros, and instalments let you pay in parts without penalties.

Why the fund started billing at all

The Unkostenbeitrag is part of a wider cost-cutting push in Austrian healthcare. Since May 2026, ÖGK has applied stricter rules for reimbursing Krankentransporte, and the full package of measures — including the debated co-payment for doctor visits — is meant to save the fund around €34.4 million per year from 2027. We covered the broader debate in our article on the ÖGK doctor-visit co-payment.

The first online invoices will be available in mid-October; the postal letters will follow over the two weeks after that.

— Österreichische Gesundheitskasse (ÖGK), statement to the outlet 5 Minuten

What to do when a payment request arrives

Work through a short checklist. Verify the basis: the invoice should list only planned trips from the stated quarter, no more than 28 per year. Pay within 30 days; if the total is above €151, request instalments straight away — it is a right, not a favour. If a trip was urgent or emergency-based yet still billed, call the fund’s hotline 05 7807 or write via MeinÖGK and contest the charge.

For the bigger picture of Austrian health insurance funds and co-payments, read our overview of health insurance in Austria, and subscribe to the how2austria newsletter to hear about new ÖGK charges the moment they are announced.

The takeaway: a Krankentransport bill is a lawful charge under the 2025 rules, not an error or a scam. Do not bin the letter — check it, then either pay on time or set up instalments.