Case study – Government

Health insurance card customization

Printing the European health insurance card in Poland.

The challenge

After it joined the European Union in 2004, Poland was required to apply the European regulations which are applicable to all EU member states. In the health sector, the European health insurance card (CEAM) allows every EU citizen to access health care in their country or in any other EU country.

In Poland, the National Health Fund is the organization responsible for issuing this card via different branches, at a national scale, by printing personal data:

  • First name, surname
  • Beneficiary’s ID
  • Card expiry date

The solution

The costs of card printing played a decisive role in the National Health Fund’s decision, given the scale of the project. The CEAM card only had to be printed, no encoding was required.

To implement this system, the National Health Fund relied on the expertise of Unicard, a distributor of Evolis printers based in Poland. The Tattoo printer was subject to in-depth evaluation, particularly in terms of integration with existing processes.

We decided to make a bid based on the Evolis Tattoo printer, which seemed to us to provide all the functions required.
Andrzej Smętek, Commercial Director at Unicard, which has worked in the sector for 20 years and been an Evolis distributor since 2000.

The result

Through this project, the Polish National Health Fund successfully implemented the EU directives, ensured the integration and easy use of the new devices, and provided user-friendly printers that can be used by non-specialists.

In 2013, the project reached new heights with the deployment of 35 new Zenius and Primacy printers to replace the existing stock.