Hospitals have to pay for sign language interpreters

SG Hamburg: Costs are included in compensation packages
Hospitals must provide or pay for the hearing-impaired a sign language interpreter. Because with the usual billable lump sums, the interpretation costs are compensated, as the Social Court (SG) Hamburg in a currently published ruling of March 24, 2017 decided (Az .: S 48 KR 1082/14 ZVW).

In the dispute, a 73-year-old deaf woman was operated on in 2010 in the gynecological department of a hospital in Hamburg. Already during the preliminary examinations, the clinic had arranged several appointments with a sign language interpreter to accompany findings, education and aftercare.

Image: Monika Wisniewska - fotolia

In her statement, the clinic stated as a secondary diagnosis "deaf dumbness". Overall, she put the health insurance 3.668 euros into account.

After completing the treatment, the sign language interpreter charged the hospital with 454 euros - 55 euros per hour plus travel expenses. The hospital did not want to pay this. The interpreter was not working for the clinic but for the patient. The clinic had certified the necessity of the sign language interpreter, so that the patient can submit the costs to her health insurance.

But responsible for the costs is the hospital, judged now the SG Hamburg. It is a "general hospital service", as far as a sign language interpreter is necessary for the treatment. This is the case only for a few treatments. However, the average costs were priced in when fixing the lump sums. Therefore, they should be compensated with the lump sum and paid by the hospital.

Since 2014, the use of a sign language interpreter in the billing of the hospital can be specified and "coded" with a separate key. However, the SG Hamburg emphasized that this code key does not increase the billing amount. This confirms that the costs of a sign language interpreter are already covered by the remuneration for the main diagnosis - and were already in dispute before 2014. Should the calculated compensation be insufficient, it is the responsibility of the hospital and health insurance associations to negotiate new compensation.

The fact that the health insurance funds may also be obliged to pay the insured person a sign language interpreter does not change the responsibility of the hospital. The corresponding regulations regulated the obligations of the health insurance funds towards their insured persons; This has nothing to do with the hospital's obligations. mwo / fle