Doctors – Professional liability insurance

In Austria, freelance doctors (practising doctors and resident physicians) and group practices must take out compulsory professional liability insurance.

Resident physicians are those who perform a recurrent medical activity requiring neither a place of practice nor an employment relationship, for example on a work contract or fee basis (e.g. school or company doctor, emergency medical service) or as an expert.

• Statutory liability insurance must cover a minimum insured sum of two million Euro for each insured event resulting from the practice of a medical profession.
• In the case of a group practice in the legal form of a GmbH, the limit of liability per annual insurance period amounts to five times the minimum insured sum, or three times that amount in the case of other freelance activities; this applies equally to personal injuries, material damages and (purely) financial losses.

The Austrian Medical Association has concluded a framework agreement with the Association of Austrian Insurance Providers concerning professional medical liability insurance. By law and under the framework agreement, all medical liability insurance policies for freelance doctors and group practices must contain certain minimum conditions of insurance.

Temporary provision of services in Austria

Citizens of an EU or EEA Member State or Switzerland who legally practice a medical occupation in one of these countries may carry out medical activities in Austria from their foreign place of business or employment as part of the principle of freedom to provide services.

A service is deemed to be provided within the meaning of the principle of freedom to provide services if the medical activity is performed in a temporary and occasional manner. This requires a temporary residence in Austria. However, proof must be provided to the Austrian Medical Association of suitable professional liability insurance, amongst other things, before those services are provided for the first time in Austria.

General practitioners, licensed physicians and specialised doctors whose professional domicile or place of work is abroad may only exercise the medical profession in Austria

• in individual cases for medical consultations or for the treatment of individual cases of illness in connection with such consultations, but only in cooperation with a doctor authorized to practice independently in Austria,
• in accordance with intergovernmental agreements,
• temporarily for the purposes of further training of doctors working in Austria or for medical teaching and research,
• in the context of cross-border medical assignments of organized emergency medical services as well as emergency and on-call services.

Doctors who have the necessary authorization* may practice the medical profession in Austria for a limited period until 31 July 2024 in cooperation with doctors who are authorized to practice independently in Austria.

Further links

• Medical liability insurance (→ ÄKNÖ)^{German text}
• All types of insurance (→ VVO)^{German text}

Legal basis

• sections 36, 36b, 37, 52d Ärztegesetz (ÄrzteG)
• *according to section 36b Abs. 1 in the version of the Federal Act BGBl. I Nr. 16/2020