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Hedgehog Benefits Patients are often pressured by doctors
One third of the insured paid for additional benefits
Cancer screening, tests for sexually transmitted diseases or therapies such as acupuncture: In German medical practices, numerous additional benefits are offered, which must be paid by the patients themselves. According to a study by the AOK institute WidO, about 20 million insured persons have paid for such individual health services (IGeL) last year alone. This corresponds to about one third of all insured persons. For a long time experts have not only criticized the fact that more and more patients are paying for additional treatments, but also that they are often not properly informed about the meaning and costs of the offers. A year ago, the consumer center (VZ) North Rhine-Westphalia launched an Internet portal for complaints about IGeL services. Now a first balance sheet was drawn.
IGeL: Patients spend a lot of money on self-payer benefits. Image: Photographee.eu - fotolia Patients feel pressured
Gerd Billen, State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Wolfgang Schuldzinski, Board of the Consumer Center NRW report in a press release that the Internet portal with about 1,500 complaints a popular forum for patients who can register their experience with chargeable extras after the doctor visit. To sum up, patients feel ill-informed and under pressure to buy additional services from doctors. "The individual experiences provide us with an insight that was previously difficult to access and a significant contribution to the discussion about the quality of the offers of the" Second Health Market "," explained Billen.
Gynecologists do good business
In the list of complaints in the Internet forum "www.igel-ärger.de" Glaucoma examination for payment, skin cancer screening with expensive Dermatoskop use and additional cancer screening in the gynecologist with paid ultrasound comes first. "Specialists hail more than family doctors," said Schuldzinski. The fact that especially gynecologists do good business with the extras has been criticized several times in the past. Patients have advised in this regard that patients should inform the gynecologist in advance, what exactly is done in a study and what benefits the examinations may have.
In spite of missing consent to the cashier asked
"As a rule, offers do not undergo quality control or safety testing before they reach the market and the patient - benefits are often disputed. It is therefore important that consumers can inform themselves independently, "says Billen. Schuldzinski said, "The complaints filed clearly show that the rules of the patients' rights law are often not respected in practice." According to this, nine out of ten patients reported that they felt compelled to have a yes for individual health care. And a third of the respondents stated that treatment was only after approval of an IGeL. Almost 40 percent complained that they were asked to pay despite the lack of written consent after treatment, and in more than one in two complaints was the lack of education on the free treatment alternatives of health insurance criticized. Every fifth patient should tick and sign his consent or rejection of an IGeL service on a form in the anteroom.
"The use of such disclaimers is merely a psychological pressure instrument that lacks any legal basis. Such forms are nonsense and are banned from the doctor's office, "said Schuldzinski. Eye and gynecologists perform particularly poorly in the assessment. According to the information, the Verbraucherzentrale NRW has already successfully warned against proven violations due to forum complaints. "Now it's time to strengthen patient rights and use the results to improve the relationships between patients and physicians in the healthcare market."
Explain the benefits and risks
From intraocular pressure measurement to cancer screening plus to professional teeth cleaning, numerous individual health services are offered that promise patients modern and optimal care, but with some controversial medical benefits. Only in some cases, the costs are covered by the statutory health insurance. Physicians are free to decide which additional medical treatment they offer in addition to the benefits from the statutory health insurance and how often they offer such extras for a fee. "It is essential for consumer protection that patients and doctors meet at eye level in a medical relationship," said Billen. Here, the Patient Rights Act provides clear rules: physicians are obliged to inform patients in a personal conversation about the benefits and risks of a comfort treatment and to list the costs in writing. In addition, the additional benefit must be contractually agreed prior to the start of the treatment and settled with the patient after completion on the basis of the medical fee schedule. (Ad)