Recovery stay

After a hospitalization or serious illness, a recovery stay is sometimes appropriate. During a recovery stay, work is done on rehabilitation, self-reliance, self-care and support for informal care.

Recovery stay
CM benefit
How to apply for a recovery stay?

Recovery stay (revaliderend herstelverblijf)


A recovery stay with reimbursement from federal health insurance is available for a maximum of 90 consecutive days (60 in Flanders) and a maximum of 90 days per calendar year.

For each day spent in a recovery stay, the institution receives a fixed amount for a large portion of your recovery care, so you do not have to pay a personal contribution yourself. For care that falls outside the fixed amount, the institution may still charge a personal contribution.

You can choose from three CM recovery care facilities:

or one of these recovery care facilities:

Recovery stay with discount from CM

As a CM member, you are also eligible for a recovery stay with discount from CM if you choose one of the three CM recovery care facilities:

A recovery stay with discount from CM is available for a minimum of 14 days and up to 60 days per pathological situation and per calendar year. In the event of a ban on orthopedic support or chemotherapy, the stay is increased to a maximum of 90 days.

For each day spent in a CM recovery care facility, you receive:

Download the referral form

Download the referral form (verwijsformulier) or request it from the hospital's social services or at the CM office.

Deliver it to a recovery care facility

Deliver the completed forms to a recovery care facility of your choice. Or have it delivered by the hospital's social services.

The recovery care facility will contact you

The recovery care facility will assess your request and contact you for further arrangements. In most cases they will ask you to complete a form concerning revalidation.

What are the conditions?

Recovery stay (revaliderend herstelverblijf)

  • You are of legal age.
  • Either:
    • you are hospitalized because you are undergoing surgery or because you suffer from a serious condition (excluding admissions to a psychiatric institution);
    • or you have a temporary, significant loss of autonomy and therefore require greater care.
  • You must be referred by a physician. This can be your general practitioner or your treating physician at the hospital, but not a physician affiliated with the recovery care facility. This physician will determine the goal of the rehabilitation together with you.
  • The referral occurs during or shortly after your hospitalization, or shortly after the loss of autonomy is diagnosed, within 30 days before the start date of the recovery stay.
  • Your independence at home is limited and is insufficiently compensated for by your living environment, or the rehabilitation care you require cannot be provided at home. Your referring physician must confirm this criterion if you experience a loss of autonomy.

Recovery stay with discount from CM

  • You are a member of CM for at least 6 months.
  • You recover:
    • after hospitalization due to a serious condition;
    • of a serious illness, which temporarily prevents you from functioning independently at home.
  • There is a treatment plan drawn up by the treating physician. This sets out the tasks of the care center to improve the situation with a view to a return home.
  • No intensive medical supervision is required or you are not completely bedridden.
  • You have admission from the center of your choice.
  • If the stay is extended up to 90 days, the discount will be granted depending on a written, substantiated request that the recovery stay facility must submit to CM.

Extra information

  • Are you affiliated with CM-Hospitaalplan or CM-Hospitaalplan Plus ? You will then be reimbursed half of your personal share for a recovery stay that is directly related to the covered hospitalization and takes place in a CM care stay within four months (CM-Hospitaalplan) of six months (CM-Hospitaalplan Plus) after the hospitalization. This for a maximum of 30 days a year.

For a recovery stay in a center other than a CM care facility, there is a reimbursement of 15 euros per day of stay for a maximum of twenty days over a period of two calendar years.

Reimbursement is only granted in the event of severe dementia, or if there is a psychological reason or need to be cared for in an adapted and small-scale entity. You can request this by sending this form to CM's advising doctor.

To be entitled to reimbursement, you must not start your stay before you have received the approval of the advising doctor.

If you do not belong to this target group, you may be able to receive a refund for your recovery stay under the heading of short-stay.