Cash patients are disadvantaged at doctor appointments

Cash and private insured are treated differently in the appointment

03/08/2013

Are cash and private patients treated equally in Germany when appointing appointments? An investigation of the Bavarian parliamentary group of the Greens came to a devastating result. For example, some cash-desk patients were completely rejected, while private insured persons should be able to get into the internist's practice the very next day.

Gerda W. (67) is insured with the AOK. Despite the greatest pain, she has to wait for an examination for 67 days. Her friend Bärbel K. (62) is a private insurer. She received an appointment with the same internist the very next day. The reason is obvious. For the same treatment, the doctor gets a lot more money. The health of the patient often seems to be secondary.

If you are insured by law, you have to be prepared for long waiting times, especially at specialized medical practices. A test caller of the Landtag Green called in a total of 610 medical practices and asked each as a health insurance and later as a private insured for an appointment. The result showed that persons insured by the law are waiting longer for an appointment than members of private health insurance (PKV). „In 14 medical practices, the alleged cash-patients were completely rejected“. A caller with back pain was even told that the orthopedist was only responsible for foot problems. But when a supposed private patient with the same problem description called, he got an appointment soon. Only about three in ten doctors did not make any difference. In 30 percent of the practices, the receptionists on the phone made no difference in the appointment between legal and private.

A doctor gave an appointment only after 280 days
But for the remaining 70 percent, the differences were all the greater. On average, a box patient waited a good 17 days longer for a practice appointment. A massive call difference experienced a test caller in the Bavarian Kaufbeuren. At the local ophthalmologist the private patient got an appointment after 26 days. The cashier would have had to wait a whopping 280 days.

The state chairman of the Green parliamentary group Waltraud Schopper criticized the results of the medical profession and the health system. „With these numbers, it is suspected that some doctors have their own purse closer than the well-being of the patients.“ Not infrequently, it also happens that private and cash patients are asked on site in different waiting rooms. Thus, the suspicion suggests that it too „to serious quality differences“ comes. The SPD, the unions and the left have been calling for citizens' insurance for some time. So also the Greens. This would abolish the two-tier health care system. Only if equal rates were paid for treatments would cashiers be treated as well as the politician.

The Kassenärztliche Vereinigung confirmed that physicians with a cash register must offer at least 20 hours a week of their consultation hours for the legally insured. A spokesman for the KVB confirmed that controls were also carried out. Which way this happens, the speaker could not communicate.

President of the Medical Association rejects criticism
The Hessian President of the Chamber of Physicians Gottfried von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach, however, sees no differences in the treatment in Germany. He warned „hasty conclusions“.„The decisive factor is that in Germany there are no quality differences in the treatment of private and cash patients“. For example, German patients would have the greatest access to doctors, medical innovations and clinics in the EU and OECD comparisons. It would make in the opinion of the medical chief no difference, whether someone is insured by private or legal. Service differences are only possible with the appointments. „Doctors assign appointments according to medical criteria - regardless of whether a patient is privately or legally covered by health insurance“, so on from garlic to Hatzbach on. Decisive is also the health condition of the patient. Life-threatening and acute cases are usually accepted immediately. But it is also true that doctors are not obliged to examine patients in a row. Each practice has its own appointment schedule.

The service differences can be explained by the existing cost pressure of the practices. In the opinion of the medical director is the outpatient care „underfunded“. If physicians would only accept members of the Treasury, the existence of some practices would be threatened quickly, said the President of the Medical Association. (Sb)