What changes fundamentally in 2026
Until now, patients needing clinical-psychological services either paid out of pocket or navigated complex reimbursement processes through private health insurance. That is now changing: Austria's three major statutory health insurers (ÖGK, SVS and BVAEB — the Austrian statutory health insurers) have signed a framework agreement together with the Austrian Professional Association of Psychologists (BÖP) that makes clinical-psychological treatment a fully funded statutory benefit.
In practice, this means: your patients pay no co-payment — just like a visit to a contracted GP. Treatment is free of charge for them.
120,700 treatment units per year are being made available. Approximately 75 million euros are earmarked for this — funding is secured through 2028.
How access works
Access to insurance-funded units does not go through your practice directly. Instead, it runs through a central BÖP coordination office, which matches patients with psychologists near their location. This is an important difference from the classic contracted-practice model familiar from general medicine.
For patients, this means: they contact the coordination office, are registered there, and then assigned to a provider. How quickly an assignment happens depends on regional demand — waiting lists are likely to develop, even if the exact scale is not yet clear.
For you as a treating clinician, this means: you are contacted through the coordination office and work within the framework of the national agreement.
What the referral must include
Before you can begin treatment under the statutory framework, the referring physician's referral must include a precise clinical question and a provisional diagnosis with ICD code. This is not a minor detail — an incomplete or missing diagnosis code can block billing entirely.
It is worth setting up clear internal workflows before the first session:
- Is the ICD code included on the referral in full?
- Is the clinical question documented and filed?
- Are consumed treatment units being tracked on an ongoing basis?
What does "treatment unit" mean?
Under the framework agreement, the number of units assigned per patient is limited. Clean unit tracking is therefore not only essential for billing, but also for clinical planning: How many units remain? When do I need to apply for an extension — or communicate that the insurance-funded phase is ending?
Set up a simple structure from the start: archive the referral, document the ICD code, keep a unit counter. What sounds like extra work will protect you from queries and disputes with the insurer later on.
What this step means for healthcare access
From a healthcare policy perspective, this is a genuine milestone. Mental health conditions are among the most common causes of incapacity to work — yet until now, access to psychological treatment depended heavily on personal finances. That is changing, at least for clinical-psychological treatment.
At the same time, the number of units available is limited. 120,700 per year sounds substantial — but spread across an entire country, it represents limited coverage. Demand is likely to exceed supply in the first years.
| Key figure | Value |
|---|---|
| Treatment units / year | 120,700 |
| Budget allocated | approx. 75 million EUR |
| Funding secured until | 2028 |
| Contracting health insurers | ÖGK, SVS, BVAEB |
| Patient coordination via | BÖP coordination office (regional) |
How to prepare your practice
When you receive insurance-funded units through the coordination office, a clearly structured documentation framework comes with them. From a quality standpoint, this is welcome — but it also means more administrative work than in a private practice.
Concretely, you will need for each treatment:
- Documented referral including ICD diagnosis code
- A record of each billed treatment unit
- Structured billing submission to the insurer
Anyone handling this on paper or across multiple disconnected tools will quickly notice how much energy it consumes — energy that should be going into clinical work.
A billing tool instead of a paper mountain: a brief look at TimeInvoicer
For clinical psychologists who want to simplify their documentation and billing digitally, there is TimeInvoicer — an Android app designed specifically for healthcare professionals.
You record the diagnosis (ICD code) and treatment unit in a single step; the app automatically generates a print-ready billing document. All data stays locally on your device — no cloud required, no subscription storing patient data on third-party servers. In healthcare, this is not a luxury — it is a data protection obligation.
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Billing that does not distract from the actual work
TimeInvoicer works offline, stores nothing in the cloud, and supports you from diagnosis code to finished billing document. Try the app for free — no credit card, no subscription trap.
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