How to use your Tessera Sanitaria healthcare card?

Once you received the healthcare temporary documents, these documents allow you to visit the doctor and to access health services although you haven't received the Tessera Sanitaria card yet. 


You can find the name of the family doctor appointed for you and his contact number written on your temporary healthcare documents. What you need to do when you are ill and need to visit a doctor is to call the hospital for an appointment.  Bring all of your healthcare temporary documents on your first visit to your family doctor. During this first visit, your family doctor will have your name and healthcare number registered as his/her appointed patient by ASL. Other than emergency treatment, all medical treatment starts with the family doctor.

It requires a lot of patience to get your chance to visit or even to get an appointment through a phone call. Often only an answering machine responds to your call. I suggest you go to the hospital and ask for an appointment directly at the hospital front desk.
Unless you go to a private doctor, you always need to make an appointment before visit a doctor.

Once you have established the problem and the doctor has suggested a course of action, you will be given a 'Ricetta' (prescription with red/blocks or normally called a red form) which provides access to medicines from the farmacia, hospital tests or visits to a specialist.

Visits to a hospital will require registering at the reception desk armed with the usual documents: ID card, Tessera Sanitaria, and Ricetta. Unless you are a pensioner or extremely poor, you will be required to make a small payment at this stage.
Emergencies are dealt with at the 'Pronto Soccorso' department in the hospital. 

Note: Regardless of coverage, emergency treatment is available at free or low-cost to anyone in need in Italy. 

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