More and more remedies and aids for patients

Health insurance companies spend more and more on the remedies and aids of patients

09/19/2013

In Germany, more and more remedies and aids are prescribed. This is evident from the healing and medical report 2012 of the Barmer GEK. According to the study, around € 11.2 billion is spent each year on medical services such as physiotherapy and massages, as well as aids, including wheelchairs and hearing aids. Nevertheless, the supply of medical aids and aids often seems to pass the patient's need.

Remedies and aids for patients do not always make sense
As reported by Barmer GEK at the presentation of the Healing and Aid Report 2012 on Tuesday in Berlin, expenditures for remedies and aids increased in the past five years by 22 and 30 percent, respectively. For example, 6.3 billion euros were spent on aids last year, an increase of 4.7 percent. Even with the aids the cost increase is clear. Medical services cost 4.9 billion euros in 2011, an increase of 6.6 percent.

Nevertheless, not every health and medical aid ordinance seems to make sense. „The medical and auxiliary care still often bypasses the patient's needs. Especially children, the sick and the needy are affected“, it says on the website of Barmer GEK. For example, drug therapy is common in children with mental illness, while alternative therapies such as occupational therapy are rarely used. However, these alternatives are often useful, for example, in the treatment of ADHD. Many physicians lack evidence-based decision support. Therefore, especially drugs would be prescribed, in which there is no therapeutic uncertainty, so the health insurance.

Patient benefit should stand in the foreground for remedial and auxiliary care
The same is true in other areas. „Although in chronic back pain, the effectiveness of classical massages as the sole treatment measure by a large part of the physiotherapists as little or not useful at all, last year alone received almost 280,000 Barmer GEK insured a corresponding regulation“, reports the Barmer GEK. In order to focus on patient benefits, Rolf-Ulrich Schlenker, Management Board Vice President of Barmer GEK, calls for a Medical Device Market Reorganization Act to be modeled on the AMNOG drug market reorganization law. (Ag)