What a hospital response looks like
A reviewed case returns a document, not a phone call. This is the shape of that document, annotated, so you know what you are asking your patient to wait for.
Specimen hospital response
The fields below are the ones every response carries. Values are illustrative placeholders chosen to show the format.
Specimen — illustrative format only. Not a real patient, physician, or hospital record.
- Case reference
- [case reference issued at submission]
- Receiving hospital
- [hospital name and city]
- Reviewing physician
- [name, specialty, and licence number in the treating jurisdiction]
- Date of review
- [ISO date]
- Indication assessed
- [the indication as stated in your referral, not a re-diagnosis]
- Decision
- Accepted for admission / Declined / Further information requested
- Proposed approach
- [the treatment the hospital proposes, in their own words, translated]
- Regulatory basis
- [status, authorising body, and public reference number for that pathway]
- Stated eligibility conditions
- [what the patient must still meet or complete before admission]
- Estimated cost
- [figure, currency, and the date the estimate expires]
- Estimate excludes
- [explicitly listed: complications, extended stay, non-protocol medication, travel, accommodation]
- Named contact at the hospital
- [who to reach, and in which language]
An estimate is not a quotation and not a cap. It reflects the protocol as proposed on the date of review; complications and extended stay are charged separately and are listed as excluded for that reason.
Why the regulatory basis is a field and not a sentence
The single most useful thing on this document, from a referring physician's point of view, is the line stating which rule the proposed treatment operates under and the reference number for it.
A treatment that is nationally registered, one admitted under a named special-access authorisation, and one available only inside a registered trial carry very different risk, evidence and recourse profiles. Prose describing a hospital as "world-leading" does not distinguish them.
We record that field as structured data on every treatment, so it appears identically in the hospital response, on the public treatment page, and in the estimate. If those three ever disagree, that is a defect on our side and we want to hear about it.
What to check before advising your patient
The response is designed to be read critically. These are the points worth pressing on.
- Does the indication match what you referred?The response should assess the indication you stated. If it has drifted to a broader or narrower one, that changes what is being offered.
- Is the regulatory reference checkable?A registration or authorisation number should resolve to a public record. If it does not, tell us and we will not let the case proceed on it.
- What does the estimate exclude?Exclusions matter more than the headline figure. Complications and extended stay are where cross-border treatment costs actually diverge from plan.
- What is required before admission?Conditions such as further imaging, a washout period, or a specific performance status often need managing by you, at home, before travel makes sense.
- What comes back to you afterwards?Confirm which reports you will receive on discharge and in what language, so follow-up care at home is not reconstructed from the patient's memory.
Look up a treatment first
Scoping a case needs no patient information at all — we confirm which pathways are open for the indication before anyone gathers a record.
Look up a treatment firstMedAccess.care coordinates access and does not diagnose, treat, or decide eligibility. Every treatment has different evidence, regulatory status, risks, and eligibility requirements. Final treatment decisions are made by participating hospitals and their licensed physicians.