Germans go to the doctor too often Doctors should reduce patient visits

Because of too high costs: Patient visits to the doctor should be less
Every German patient goes to the doctor 17 times a year on average. The panel doctors say that not all visits are necessary. Therefore, they want to better control the number of patient visits in the future. The health insurance companies are skeptical.

An average of 17 times a year to the doctor
While it was said four years ago that the majority of Germans do not go to the doctor often, a year later it was puzzled over whether the number of visits to the doctor would actually drop. And now it is said that the Germans would go to a doctor too often. Andreas Gassen, Chairman of the Board of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), told the German Press Agency: "On average, every patient in Germany goes to the doctor 17 times, either to the same or to several. That's a lot of contacts - and not all are necessary. "

The Germans go to the doctor too often. The physicians want to control the visits in the future better. Health insurance companies are skeptical of the plans. (Image: eyetronic / fotolia.com)

Doctor visits should be better controlled
According to the agency, GPs want to better control patient visits to patients in order to save costs and resources. Gassen made it clear that it was important for better control to have a contact person as the first port of call. This could be the family doctor or even a specialist, in which the patient - for example, because of a chronic disease such as rheumatism - permanently in treatment. In this way, the patient receives "a guide linked to appropriate treatment offers that he can use". In addition, unnecessary hospitalizations could be avoided.

Motivate people to better health
The family doctors in Germany are not completely satisfied with the considerations. They see themselves as the only and first point of contact for patient control. "The high number of unnecessary doctor-patient contacts or the many superfluous hospital stays, will only be solved in a sustainable manner, if we implement a freely selectable GP primary care nationwide," explained the Federal Chairman of the German Family Doctors Association, Ulrich Weigeldt, the dpa. And the Techniker health insurance (TK) fears in such a patient control above all a tutelage of its insured. "More promising than a management in the sense of conducting or patronizing it is in our eyes, the right incentives to set and to motivate people to take care of their health," said TK CEO Jens Baas. This could be in the form of bonus schemes or health coaches providing targeted support - both to the healthy and to the sick.

Free choice of doctor must be maintained
The KBV chairman Gassen emphasized that the free choice of doctor must be maintained in principle. "But we have to discuss how we want to make our healthcare future-proof. The demand and the costs for medical, nursing and other services will increase only because of the demographic development. "Accordingly, several electoral rates in the statutory health insurance (SHI) must be considered. If a patient wants to decide for himself which medical services he wants to use, the additional burden of the system should be offset by additional contributions.

Avoid unnecessary hospitalizations
The health insurance funds would have to think but with good control but also on premium refunds. "We expect this ... a more conscious use of the resource" doctor "," said the KBV boss. "We do not have a finished plan yet," says Gassen. But until the next medical day in May in Hamburg, a ready concept will be presented. Home and specialist physicians agree that avoiding unnecessary hospital stays with a better control system. According to Gassen, according to surveys of the Central Institute for the Comprehensive Health Insurance (ZI), costs of more than seven billion euros are incurred through unnecessary hospital admissions - in other words, through cases that could actually be treated on an outpatient basis. The emergency rooms in clinics are often completely overcrowded, is reported for years. (Ad)