Austria

Healthcare System

Austria employs a social health insurance system based on mandatory contributions from employees and employers. The system provides universal healthcare coverage to its citizens and residents, ensuring access to a wide range of medical services.

The Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care, and Consumer Protection is responsible for overseeing the healthcare system in Austria. The country's social health insurance is administered by regional health insurance funds called Gebietskrankenkassen. There are nine regional funds, one for each of Austria's provinces, and several smaller specialized funds for specific professional groups.

The population receives comprehensive healthcare benefits through the system, including access to primary care, specialist care, hospital care, dental care, and prescription medications. The system also covers preventive care, maternity care, and rehabilitation services. Additionally, it provides financial support for patients with chronic illnesses or disabilities. To access healthcare benefits in Austria, individuals must have health insurance, which is mandatory for all residents. Individuals may access any level of the healthcare system with no restrictions, as there is no formal gatekeeping system in place.

To access the benefits provided by the Austrian healthcare system, an individual must be a citizen or a legal resident of the country. They also must be enrolled in the social health insurance system, which is typically achieved through mandatory contributions from both employees and employers. Additionally, family members of insured individuals, such as spouses and children, can access healthcare benefits without any additional contributions.

Claims data in Austria is primarily collected and managed by the regional health insurance funds. The country maintains a Central Patient Registry, which contains anonymized data on hospital admissions and discharges. Electronic health records (EHR) are being increasingly adopted, with the Austrian ELGA system providing a secure platform for healthcare providers to access and share patient information, including medical history, laboratory results, and radiology reports. The ELGA system is designed to improve coordination and continuity of care, while also maintaining strict data privacy and security measures.

Administrative or Claims Data

Database: Statistik Austria Patient Discharge

[1]

Sponsor, manager or home institution: Statistik Austria;

Primary purpose: Provide open access information about patient discharge.

Type of information: Age in 5-year groups STAT; Age in 5 year groups; Diagnosis ICD-9 4-digit code; Diagnosis ICD-10 4-digit; Diagnosis ISHMT; Diagnosis chapter; Dismissal type; Fund affiliation; Function code 1st-2nd digit; Function code 3rd-4th digit; Function code 5th-6th digit; Function code 3rd-6th digit; Non-profit; Gender; Gender nonbinary; Hospital; MEL (codes up to 2008); MEL (codes from 2009); MEL subchapters; MEL chapter; MEL operative/non-operative; Public law; PSY_SOM; Entity Type; Hospital location; Citizenship political; Cause of injury; Supply region; Utility sector; Residential state; Residence code; Residential district; State of residence. The full database is available here.

Available type of information: Hospital discharges, cancer incidence, cancer mortality, cancer prevalence and the survival probabilities of cancer patients.

Source of Information: Legal entities of hospitals with in-patient admissions are obliged to report.

Data level: Patient level.

Available data level: National and regional level.

Number of Records: Unknown.

Date Range: 1989 onwards.

Cancer Areas of Interest:

Open data access: Data is partially publicly available. Publicly available data can be found here. Information on how to access the data can be found here.

Information/Contact for data request: Contact information can be found here.

Registries

Database: Statistik Austria Cancer Registry

[2]

Sponsor, manager or home institution: Statistik Austria.

Primary purpose: Provide open access information about cancer incidence.

Type of information: Data Dictionary: Cancer Registry. More information and data dictionary on this and other datasets can be found here. Go to the Search bar and type "KRE 2020 - Krebsstatistik (Krebsregister)" and open the file.

Available type of information: Cancer incidence, cancer diseases, tumors, cancer registry, malignancies, tumor diseases, cancer statistics and health.

Source of Information: Hospitals are obliged to report cancer cases and deaths caused by cancer.

Data level: Patient level.

Available data level: National and regional level.

Number of Records: Unknown.

Date Range: 1983 onwards.

Cancer Areas of Interest:

Open data access: Data is partially publicly available. Publicly available data can be found here. Information on how to access the data can be found here.

Information/Contact for data request: Contact information can be found here.

Database: Statistik Austria Cause of Death Registry

[3]

Sponsor, manager or home institution: Statistik Austria.

Primary purpose: Provide open access information about cause of death.

Type of information: Data Dictionary: Statistik Austria Cause of Death Registry. More information and data dictionary on this and other datasets can be found here. To access the full list go to Search Table and type: "STF - Statistik der Standesfälle einschließlich Todesursachenstatistik", and then see Deceased - demographic characteristics and Deceased - causes of death.

Available type of information: Cancer incidence and mortality for all malignomas (C00–C97, excl. C44) by sex over time; Cancer incidence and mortality by tumour site, annual average from 2018 to 2020; Cancer incidence and mortality by federal provinces, annual average from 2018 to 2020.

Source of Information: Death data in Austria comes from registrar reports, including deaths of residents abroad since 2009. Results are classified by the person's last known residence.

Data level: Patient level.

Available data level: National and regional level.

Number of Records: Approximately 85,000.

Date Range: 1970 onwards.

Cancer Areas of Interest:

Open data access: Data is partially publicly available. Publicly available data can be found here. Information on how to access the data can be found here.

Information/Contact for data request: Contact information can be found here.

Databases for Clinical Trials, Surveys and Biobanks

Survey: Health Survey 2019

Sponsor, manager or home institution: Statistik Austria.

Primary purpose: Provides representative data on the state of health, health behavior, and use of health services for the Austrian population aged 15 and over.

Type of information: Data Dictionary: Variable descriptions of the 2019 health survey. To find the original data dictionary, click here and go to Data Offering - Standardized Datasets (SDS) > Health Survey > Sample metadata > ATHIS 2019 - complete data set.

Source of Information: Survey responses.

Data level: Respondent level.

Number of Records: 15,461 respondents.

Date Range: 2019 and 2014.

Cancer Areas of Interest: Unknown.

Open data access: Data is not publicly available. More information about the database can be found here. Information on how to access the data can be found here.

Information/Contact for data request: Contact information can be found here.