Cash patients wait 16 days longer

Statutory health insurance in Baden-Württemberg wait an average of 16 days longer for a specialist appointment

07/09/2012

In Baden-Wuerttemberg according to a short study of the parliamentary group Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen, statutory health insured persons wait significantly longer for an appointment with a specialist than in comparison insured persons of the private health insurance (PKV). According to the Green politician and member of parliament showed in neurological specialist medical practices.

For the non-representative study, the politician's employees called in a total of 490 outpatient specialists and pretended to be either cash or private. „In the survey, only a quarter of the consulted practices made little or no difference“, it says in the summary. In some cases, the doctors' practices differed by more than 100 days in appointments. A particularly blatant case had been observed at a doctor's office in Karlsruhe. While the private patient received an appointment after only 20 days, the health insurance patient should wait 210 days (7 months) for the initial examination.

Higher physician fees for private patients
Doctors give different appointments because they are paid differently for the therapies, says Bender. For a treatment of a private patient, the doctors receive 2.5 times the rate of a cash patient. In this context, the politician called for a fundamental reform of the health system. Instead of the two-tier system, health insurance for all Germans should be introduced. With a civil insurance, patients would be treated the same, because the conditions would have changed. In addition to the Greens also demand parts of the SPD and the Left Party, the introduction of a statutory civil insurance. However, such a proposal meets with resistance from the FDP and the Union.

During the random sample, nearly 500 specialist medical practices were called in Baden-Württemberg. At first, the caller pretended to be a private patient and at most one day later as a cash-desk patient. The doctors' offices of neurologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists, radiologists, orthopedists, cardiologists and ENT doctors were randomly selected from the phone book.

Waiting time differences in the country parts
In addition to the significantly longer waiting time difference also showed differences in the parts of the country. The differences were particularly great in the regions of Friedrichshafen, Ravensburg and the surrounding area with 21 days, in Karlsruhe and Pforzheim with 19 days and in the Eastern Black Forest with 18 days. By contrast, the regions Ulm, Tübingen and Reutlingen showed 11 days, Mannheim 12 days and the Greater Stuttgart 13 days. 15 medical practices did not award any appointments to insured persons of the statutory health insurance funds.

The testers were also able to observe differences in the medical specialties. Statutory health insurance patients had to wait for a doctor's appointment with a neurologist with an average of 24 days time difference the longest. Appointments with dermatologists were given on average with 22 days waiting time difference, with ophthalmologists were 21 days. Long waits also showed the ear, nose and throat doctors and cardiologists. However, here the waiting times were less divisive. 4 days for ENT specialists and 7 days for cardiac specialists. A study by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) came to similar conclusions in November last year. (Sb)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann, Pixelio