6.3.2015 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 62/6
COMMISSION REGULATION (EU) 2015/359
of 4 March 2015
implementing Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards statistics on healthcare expenditure and financing
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 16 December 2008 on Community statistics on public health and health and safety at work (1), and in particular Article 9(1) and Annex II, point (d), thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008 establishes a common framework for the systematic production of European statistics on public health and health and safety at work.
(2) Implementing measures determine the data and metadata to be supplied on healthcare expenditure and financing and the reference periods, intervals and time limits for the data provision.
(3) In accordance with Article 6(2) of Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008, a cost-benefit analysis, taking into account the benefits of the availability of data on healthcare expenditure and financing in relation to the cost of the data collections, which Member States have been conducting on a voluntary basis since 2005 according to the principles set out by the System of Health Accounts, and the burden on Member States, has been carried out. Pursuant to Article 6(1) of Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008, in 2013 and 2014, the Commission instituted pilot studies that were completed on a voluntary basis by the Member States. The Commission has discussed user needs with Member States at various meetings. The availability of EU-wide data is likely to be of great benefit for decisions relating to health and social policy.
(4) In order to ensure relevance and comparability of data, the System of Health Accounts 2011 manual (2), which was produced jointly by the Commission (Eurostat), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) and sets out the concepts, the definitions and the methods for data processing relating to healthcare expenditure and financing, should form the basis for the detailed questionnaire and the accompanying guidelines used in the joint annual data collection exercise carried out by these three bodies.
(5) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the European Statistical System Committee,
This Regulation lays down rules for the development and production of European statistics in the area of healthcare expenditure and financing, one of the subjects for statistics on healthcare listed in Annex II to Regulation (EC) No 1338/2008.
The definitions to be used in applying this Regulation are set out in Annex I.
Member States shall provide data on the areas specified in Annex II.
1.   Member States shall provide the required data and the associated standard reference metadata on an annual basis. The reference period shall be the calendar year.
2.   Data and reference metadata for the reference year N shall be transmitted by 30 April N+2.
3.   Data and reference metadata shall be provided to the Commission (Eurostat) using the single entry point services or should be made available for retrieval by the Commission (Eurostat) by electronic means on an annual basis.
4.   The first reference year shall be 2014.
5.   The last reference year shall be 2020.
6.   By way of derogation from paragraph 2, Member States shall provide the data and reference metadata for the reference year 2014 by 31 May 2016.
1.   Member States shall provide data at the level of aggregation specified in Annex II.
2.   Member States shall provide the necessary reference metadata, in particular concerning the data sources, their coverage and the compilation methods used, information on features of national healthcare expenditure and financing specific to the Member States that deviate from definitions provided in Annex I, references to national legislation where this forms the basis for healthcare expenditure and financing, as well as information on any changes to the statistical concepts mentioned hereto.
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.