The practice fee has an end

Loss of practice fee pleases doctors and patients

01/03/2013

As usual, the medical practices in Germany are currently well filled after the holidays. However, there is one major difference compared to previous years: Patients no longer have to pay ten euros for their treatment. To the delight of the patients, the medical profession and finally also the health insurances, the policy with the agreement of all parties had decided to abolish the practice fee from 01 January 2013.

From all sides is currently praise for the discontinuation of the practice fee to hear. The patients are pleased that they no longer have to pay ten euros per quarter, the doctors are grateful for the elimination of the bureaucratic effort and also the health insurance companies have no objection to their abolition in view of the lack of control function of the practice fee. The practice fee was from the beginning, especially from a social point of view, heavily controversial. Because some patients are not able to raise ten euros at any time. They have to postpone their visits to the doctor's office, which can have serious health consequences, as the delays in diagnosis lead to treatment later. According to the experts, such delays cause follow-up costs, which already erode part of the additional revenue from the practice fee.

Doctors welcomes abolition of the practice fee
The doctors' criticism of the practice fee was mainly directed against the workload associated with their request. For example, the physicians had to pay the patients ten euros per quarter, store them and then transfer them to the health insurance companies. If a patient had already paid ten euros to another doctor for the quarter, he was not asked to pay again as long as the corresponding receipt could be presented. Otherwise, the doctors first had to collect ten euros and later handed over the document to the patient to hand over the money again. Overall, the practice fee for the medical profession meant a huge administrative burden, which was also at the expense of the treatment time for the patients. By eliminating the practice fee, the practice is now again greatly simplified because the reception no review in relation to the practice fee more must be done and also the cash management omitted. The doctors save costs and could again devote more intensive to the patient. For good reason, the Kassenärztliche associations of the countries, the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung and other medical organizations have therefore massively used for a discontinuation of the practice fee.

Lack of control function of the practice fee
In the eight years of its existence, the practice fee had not rudely met the expectations placed in it by the several pages. The desired control function was missing. Luckily, as some doctors and patient organizations emphasized. If the fee had led to carry-overs of illnesses, this would not have been conducive to the health of the patients and, moreover, would have resulted in additional follow-up costs. Even the health insurance companies are therefore largely pleased about the abolition of the practice fee. However, they are currently in the comfortable situation of massive surpluses. If the health insurance funds did not have billions of dollars, they would probably have expected more resistance from their side. But given the financial cushion of about 23 billion euros in the health fund and the health insurance, here are currently no objections to the abolition of the practice fee to hear.

Kassenärztliche Federal Association and German Medical Association satisfied
The chairman of the board of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV), Dr. med. Andreas Köhler, emphasized in a press release at the end of December: „We are glad that the practice fee is abolished and that doctors can once again take care of their actual task of treating their patients.“ The practice fee was an immense bureaucratic effort. On average, physicians, psychotherapists and their teams had to spend 120 hours a year in order to collect and cancel the practice fee for the health insurance funds. Köhler This is time that was lacking in patient care, but was urgently needed there. Immediately after the decision to abolish the practice fee at the beginning of November, the President of the German Medical Association, Prof. Dr. med. Frank Ulrich Montgomery, the resolution expressly welcomes and affirms that „Practice fee from the beginning a misconstruction“ has been. Overall, there is currently no one who regrets the abolition of the practice fee. The only question is, why the controversial fee remained for eight years at all. (Fp)

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Picture: Matthias Preisinger