Health insurance must pay for sign language course

Learning the sign language can be nursing
(Jur). If patients are likely to have deafness due to illness, the health insurance company must pay them the cost of a sign language course. Participation in such courses should then be regarded as a medical treatment, the Social Court of Koblenz ruled in a ruling announced on Wednesday, March 23, 2016 (Ref .: S 14 KR 760/14).

Image: Monika Wisniewska - fotolia

This was a health insurance right, suffering from an incurable hearing impairment. The disease is very likely to lead to deafness. Before he could hear anything, the patient wanted to learn the sign language as quickly as possible. His doctor told him how important early learning of sign language was.

The health insurance company should therefore pay appropriate courses. This came to the first, but later refused, because sign language courses were not included in the catalog of benefits of health insurance.

However, the Social Court ruled on 1 March 2016 in favor of the insured. The participation in such courses should be regarded as a medical treatment for which the health insurance would have to pay if medical necessity. (FLE)