BKK for health professions threatens bankruptcy

According to City BKK: company health insurance BKK health professions also threatens bankruptcy

13/05/2011

In addition to the City BKK now threatens another health insurance fund off: Only a merger with a health insurance could rescue the BKK for health professionals from imminent bankruptcy. Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP) calls for health insurance top association for help. Former insured of the City BKK are rejected in the search for a new health insurance in heaps.

BKK Heilberufe announces impending insolvency
This year could be the year of the dying health insurance companies. For the first time since the introduction of the health fund had a health insurance already throw in the towel. For the first of July 2011 the City BKK closes. Now threatening another working cash the premature end. The BKK for health professionals from Dusseldorf has reported to the Federal Insurance Office in Bonn threatened bankruptcy. Due to inadequate allocations of the health fund, steadily increasing expenditure in the health system and an aging member structure with simultaneous member shrinkage threatens a possible insolvency. The cash management board is legally obliged to „To alert the competent supervisory authority at an early stage to any risks of possible negative developments“, it says in a statement. „This commitment is made by the board members of the BKK für Heilberufe with the report § 171b para. 2 SGB V.“

Too low revenue and overspending
The BKK for health professions, in which mainly nurses and social workers are covered by health insurance, had reported a possible financial deficit for the year 2011, according to the Federal Insurance Office. According to their own calculations, the contribution allocations for the current year are too low to keep expenses and revenues in balance.

Additional contribution was reduced at the end of 2010
At the end of last year, all signs indicated that the BKK had recovered financially for health professionals. If the health insurance fund had collected an additional contribution of one percent of the contributory income in 2010, an additional contribution of 10 euros was introduced from the first of January. With the reduction, most members paid around 5 euros less than before. At that time it was still called, the „BKK für Heilberufe has significantly improved its cost structure in the current year through intensive organizational restructuring measures.“ One had to look after the „Turbulence of the year 2010“ Good prospects for a better position on the box office had been announced by chief treasurer Christine Löb. Health economists now criticize the premature reduction of the additional contribution. Finally, even with a reduced additional contribution, it would no longer be possible to attract members if most other funds refrain from introducing an additional contribution.

Fusion could save health insurance
In order to prevent further closure, the Advisory Board and Executive Board have decided to find a suitable partner for the merger. The cash management board expects that the merger partner search will be completed by the beginning of June at the latest. Until then, it has been shown whether a willing cash partner is available. It is emphasized that unlike the City BKK, the BKK health professions are still far from being threatened with closure. The BKK für Heilberufe claims to have 127,000 insured persons with a total expenditure of around 278 million euros per year. Last year, around half of all members left the fund due to the additional contribution. The auditors and experts of „Schneider Geiwitz & Partner“ appreciate loudly that a closure of the BKK health professions will cost around 23 to 24 million euros. These costs would then have to be taken over by the association of company health insurance companies (BKK). The BKK Heilberufe emphasizes that, despite the current situation, there are no restrictions on health services.

Closing costs would burden health insurance system
In the search for a new partner and the Federal Association of BKK health insurance is involved. Their spokeswoman, Christine Richter, said on Friday in Berlin that the BKK health professionals must have found a suitable partner by the end of May. Otherwise, the insolvency threatens in the coming months. Whether a partner can actually be found is uncertain. The association estimates the prospects as „skeptical“ on. Talks are currently underway with a total of three funds. Which these are, the spokeswoman did not want to give. "I do not want to participate in speculation," said judge of the news agency „DAPD“. „Economically the most reasonable would be a merger with financial aid from the BKK camp, because closing costs or bankruptcy costs would most likely be higher.“

Insured insecure
Many insured members of the BKK für Heilberufe are now afraid that they will fare like the members of the City BKK, who now have to look after the closure for a new health insurance. Because every day there are reports about how insured people are rejected in turns. „First I was told, the health insurance is full“ said one pensioner (69) opposite „Heilpraxisnet.de“. „And now I'm advised to go to a cash desk, because there prevail the approximate benefits“.

Federal Health Minister Bahr is outraged
The Abwimmel actions of the funds could prove to be the first stress test for the new Federal Minister of Health Daniel Bahr (FDP). In a first opinion, the minister showed „indignantly“ And still wanted to talk to the chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance (GKV) Doris Pfeiffer, so that they speak a word of power. Pfeiffer followed suit and told the press: „All members of City BKK have the right to choose their new health insurance.“ Pfeiffer expects each fund to take, of course, each member that makes an application. „Everything else would be unsolid and unacceptable.“

Onslaught: Barmer GEK closes service points
The reminder has not arrived to all appearances in Hamburg. The Barmer GEK has announced today that they have closed all service points, because you could no longer accomplish the veritable onslaught of former City BKK members. „We have hundreds of requests every day. Now the employees have to first take care of the concerns of our insured“, a spokesman for the fund explained the closure compared to the "Hamburger Abendblatt". The Domino effect in the health insurance system, warned by many experts, now seems to be slowly becoming a reality. (Sb)

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Image: Gerd Altmann, Pixelio.de