German tourist paid a shocking fee in Hungarian hospital for VIP care – MP pressed charges

The Uzsoki Hospital is in Budapest’s 14th district, Zugló, represented by Ákos Hadházy, a well-known Hungarian anti-corruption politician, in the Hungarian National Assembly. Mr Hadházy shared documents that a German tourist had to pay EUR 1,650 for VIP care in July in the hospital, a fee higher than what German private hospitals demand for similar treatment and examination. He suspects fraud, so he pressed charges against the healthcare institution, which no longer communicates with him.

German tourist chose VIP care instead of waiting for hours

Mr Hadházy shared the details of the suspicious issue on his official Facebook page. The MP of Zugló wrote that a German tourist, being in Budapest with her husband on a boat trip, struggled with high blood pressure and headache. Therefore, an ambulance doctor recommended that she should visit the Uzsoki Hospital. There, the employees offered them two options. The tourists could wait 6-8 hours to get proper medical help or pay for VIP care. They chose the latter, and the doctor made a head CT and X-ray on the woman, Hadházy cleared.

First, the hospital wanted them to pay in cash on the spot without getting an invoice. However, the husband refused to do so. Later, they got an invoice via email, so they paid the EUR 1,650 examination fee. However, the insurance company of the German couple refused to reimburse the costs because the invoice did not detail what examinations the doctor conducted.

A Hungarian doctor friend of the couple living in Germany tried to help, but the hospital told her that they never issue euro invoices. That is when the issue became problematic.

Uzsoki Hospital is more expensive than German hospitals

Since the Hungarian friend could not get any details from the hospital, the couple turned to them and asked for a detailed invoice, which they received. It came to light that the Uzsoki Hospital’s VIP costs were multiple times higher than those of the private medical institutions in Germany. According to Szeretlek Magyarország, in Germany, the maximum cost of the service would have been EUR 1,000.f