Home visits for people in need of care

Berlin wants to save costs through strict home visits to people in need of care in the millions

22/08/2012

As a result of demographic change, expenditures for those in need of care who can no longer pay the additional payments themselves are rising. The state of Berlin now wants to react with drastic measures and has announced home visits to those affected. Thousands of people in need of care now have to expect cuts in co-payments. In addition, the state of Berlin wants to "examine applications for care-aid more closely".

Savings from home visits with people in need of care
Year after year, the costs of the care sector are rising. Particularly high costs cause the outpatient care in the home of the needy. There are according to the health senator Mario Czaja (CDU), the expenses „increased the most“. Now, Senator Czaja has announced that people in need of care should expect a home visit from the district offices. „If you apply for nursing assistance, you must expect a home visit from specialists from the district office“, so the health senator on Tuesday. The red-black coalition apparently wants to implement savings through benefit cuts.

Throughout Berlin, the competent authorities are to examine applications for care assistance with greater precision. This measure is now to be implemented nationwide, which has already been tested in a pilot project in the districts of Kreuzberg, Mitte, Steglitz-Zehlendorf and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg since 2009. According to the Senator, it was possible to save around € 11.8 million in long-term care payments by reviewing applications from the offices.

Applications should be examined more closely
Irrespective of the pilot project, the individual districts should process care requests more precisely. The Senate hopes that this will lead to a massive reduction in cost increases. In the period from 2009 to 2010, the financial growth in expenditure on outpatient care assistance was still 8.4 percent. One year later, the cost increased by only half a percent.

The nursing assistant is anchored in social assistance. If, for example, people can no longer afford the additional payments of long-term care insurance for outpatient assistance, they can apply for a special social assistance application. Most often, the additional payments for pensioners and the disabled are taken.

Social organizations criticize the planned home visits. These have only one background: „To shorten the care services for needy people“. (Sb)

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Picture: Rainer Sturm