Occupational healthcare for self-employed persons
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If you are self-employed or a farmer, you can choose to arrange occupational health coverage for yourself. Kela can pay reimbursement for part of the cost of the coverage.
The purpose of occupational healthcare is to create a healthy and safe work environment and a well-functioning workplace community, to prevent work-related illnesses, and to maintain and promote work capacity and functioning.
Self-employed persons with hired staff
If you have employees working for you, you can claim reimbursement for your own occupational health costs on an employer-specific claim at the same time as you claim reimbursement for the cost of your employees’ occupational health services.
Learn more
- about arranging occupational health services (Employers section, in Finnish)
- about claiming reimbursement for the costs of occupational health services (Partner Organisations section, in Finnish).
What are the criteria for reimbursement?
Kela can reimburse occupational healthcare costs in the following situations:
The self-employed person or farmer has coverage under the Self-Employed Persons’ Pensions Act (YEL) or the Farmers’ Pensions Act (MYEL), respectively.
- The self-employed person or farmer receives rehabilitation subsidy or temporary workers’ compensation pension, and the YEL or MYEL insurance has been terminated on account of incapacity for work. Reimbursements are also available to self-employed persons and farmers who already receive rehabilitation subsidy or temporary workers’ compensation pension when arranging occupational healthcare coverage for themselves.
- The self-employed person who is on an old-age pension or an early old-age pension pays a voluntary YEL or MYEL insurance contribution and works in a company or continues to work as a farmer.
Before obtaining occupational health services, you must agree on the content and provision of the care with the service provider. Occupational healthcare is based on a workplace survey in which the service provider examines the work practices and workplace conditions and evaluates their health impact.
In order to qualify for reimbursement of occupational healthcare costs, you and the occupational healthcare provider must have the following documents, and they must be current and valid:
- agreement on occupational healthcare (Partner Organisations section, in Finnish)
- plan of operations for occupational healthcare (Employers section, in Finnish)
- workplace survey (Employers section, in Finnish).
What does Kela reimburse?
In accordance with the Health Insurance Act, Kela provides reimbursements for the necessary and reasonable costs of preventive occupational healthcare (Employers section, in Finnish) and general practitioner level medical care services (Employers section, in Finnish).
Costs for medical care can be reimbursed as occupational healthcare only for self-employed persons who have an agreement on occupational healthcare with a service provider that covers not only preventive occupational healthcare but also medical services.
Kela can also provide reimbursement for the cost of travel related to occupational healthcare and for the cost of establishing first-aid readiness (Employers section, in Finnish) if it has been determined, as part of the workplace survey, what kind of first-aid readiness is relevant for the type of work concerned.
How much is reimbursed?
Occupational healthcare costs are divided into two reimbursement categories:
- Reimbursement category I includes the costs of preventive occupational healthcare.
- Reimbursement category II includes the costs of general practitioner level medical care and other healthcare.
The rate of reimbursement is 60% for preventive occupational healthcare and 50% for medical care, in both cases calculated on the basis of necessary and reasonable costs and with the requirement that the basic criteria for reimbursement are met and that the services are provided in accordance with good occupational health practice.
There are two independent maximum amounts which are applied to occupational healthcare (reimbursement category I) and are specific to individual entrepreneurs:
- higher rate, which applies to workplace surveys carried out by occupational healthcare professionals and experts
- lower rate, which applies to other preventive occupational healthcare (for example, medical examinations and associated tests, costs of first-aid readiness, and travel costs).
Kela confirms annually a maximum reimbursement rate for each category, which is entrepreneur-specific and follows the general level of prices. The maximum rates for the following year are confirmed at the end of the previous year. Kela does not pay reimbursement for any exceeding costs.
Maximum rates of reimbursement in 2025
Reimbursement category I = preventive occupational healthcare and reimbursement category II = medical care.
| Costs (€ per year) | Reimbursement (€ per year) | |
Reimbursement category I | ||
| Workplace survey (higher) | 1005.50 | 603.30 |
| Other preventive occupational healthcare (lower) | 503.00 | 301.80 |
Reimbursement category II | ||
| Medical care | 357.60 | 178.80 |
Reimbursement category I = preventive occupational healthcare and reimbursement category II = medical care.
| Costs (€ per year) | Reimbursement (€ per year) | |
Reimbursement category I | ||
Workplace survey (higher) | 980.00 | 588.00 |
| Other preventive occupational healthcare (lower) | 490.00 | 294.00 |
Reimbursement category II | ||
| Medical care | 348.50 | 174.25 |
Rates of reimbursement of workplace survey costs for farmers
For farmers, the costs of workplace surveys can include
- making a farm visit
- documenting and reviewing a plan of operation
- an off-site interview with the farmer conducted by an occupational healthcare professional.
Farmers can be reimbursed for 60% of the costs of workplace surveys under the Health Insurance Act, while the remaining 40% of the reimbursement comes out of other government funds. In other words, farmers incur no costs for workplace surveys unless they exceed an entrepreneur-specific annual limit.
How to claim reimbursement for occupational healthcare costs
You need not claim reimbursement afterwards if you are self-employed and get your occupational health services from either
- the wellbeing services county
- a private healthcare provider who has an agreement with Kela to use payment forwarding for reimbursements of occupational healthcare costs.
Your service provider will deduct the reimbursement available from Kela from its bill and claim reimbursement for itself. You will get a direct reimbursement and will only pay your share of the costs.
Private service providers can only use payment forwarding (Partner Organisations section, in Finnish) if you authorise its use in the agreement on occupational healthcare or in an appendix to the agreement.
If the reimbursement is paid to the service provider as indicated in the payment forwarding notice, you will not get a separate decision. However, a written decision is available upon request within 6 months of when you were provided the services.
Kela sends the service provider a notice concerning the payment forwarding.
Information in Finnish about the reimbursements paid to you is available in OmaKela under Omat etuudet (My benefits) - Yrittäjän työterveyshuolto (Occupational healthcare for self-employed persons).
If a reimbursement is denied wholly or in part, or there is an additional reimbursement, Kela sends a notice of decision to you as well as a copy to the service provider. Self-employed persons and service providers both have the possibility to appeal the decision.
If the private service provider does not have an agreement with Kela about using payment forwarding, you must first pay for the occupational health services you use and then claim reimbursement from Kela afterwards.
Do as follows:
- Complete the application form SV 110 TTH (PDF, in Finnish).
- Save the blank form to your device. Do not fill in the claim directly in the browser, because some of the information may not be saved that way.
- Open the form with Adobe Reader and fill it in.
- Save the completed form to your device. Note that the claim must be in PDF format.
- Send the claim using the OmaKela e-service (available in Finnish and Swedish):
- Log in to OmaKela and select Tee hakemus (File a claim).
- Select Yrittäjän työterveyshuolto (Occupational healthcare for self-employed persons).
- When you send your claim in OmaKela, you do not need to sign it.
- If you have supporting documents, send them via OmaKela after you have submitted your claim. If they are paper documents, you can photograph them. Supporting documents you will need to enclose:
- Form SV 111 TTH (pdf) or SV 113 TTH (pdf), which the private service provider has filled in for you. You can enclose several forms with one claim.
- Proof of payment is not needed, but Kela may ask you for details when reviewing your claim.
- Visit OmaKela to see if your claim has been decided, how much you will get and when the reimbursement will be paid. You will also see reminders of, for instance, supporting documents missing from your claim.
If you cannot use OmaKela, send your claim to Kela by post. Save the claim form SV 110 TTH (pdf, in Finnish) to your device and fill it in after saving it. Print out the form and send it and any supporting documents to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.
You will receive a written notice of decision on your claim. The decision is accompanied by instructions which you can refer to if you think that the decision is wrong and you want to appeal it.
The decision notice is only in Finnish or Swedish. If you need help with something, you can call one of our English language customer service numbers.
Claim reimbursement separately for travel costs and costs related to first-aid readiness
A separate claim on the form SV 116 TTH (pdf, in Finnish) is required for travel costs and costs of first-aid readiness related to occupational healthcare. Send the claim in OmaKela at Tee hakemus (File a claim) - Yrittäjän työterveyshuolto (Occupational healthcare for self-employed persons). You can also mail the claim to Kela, PL 10, 00056 KELA.
When to claim
Claim reimbursement within 6 months of the date you paid costs.
Visit OmaKela for information on occupational healthcare costs and reimbursements
Visit OmaKela to see the amount of occupational healthcare costs you have accumulated during the year and how much you have been reimbursed by Kela. You can also see the amount of reimbursement funds left for the rest of the year. Log in to the e-service using your online bank credentials or a mobile ID. The information can be found at Omat etuudet (My benefits) - Yrittäjän työterveyshuolto (Occupational healthcare for self-employed persons).