Health insurance number of medical practices too high

Health insurance association: number of medical practices too high

26/03/2011

The Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance (GKV) complains about the high number of physicians in Germany. In addition, medical practices are regionally unevenly distributed. While there is only a shortage of doctors in the country, there is a veritable oversupply in the cities. According to the Kassenverband, the number of practices in Germany has increased by 45,000 in the last twenty years.

Too much established city doctors
Doris Pfeffer, CEO of the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV) again criticized the steadily increasing number of physicians in Germany. "There are too many doctors with their own practice," said the chief executive. In the last twenty years there has been a veritable surge in doctors in the field of outpatient doctors. Around 45,000 new medical practices have been created. The real problem, however, is the overall unequal regional distribution. In many cities there is a significant oversupply of general practitioners and specialists. In some rural areas, however, many doctors are missing. The presidencies of the GKV therefore called on the Federal Minister of Health Philipp Rösler (FDP) to reduce the oversupply by appropriate means. So Pfeiffer told the newspaper "Die Welt" on Saturday: "I try to convince the minister that one can only eliminate the undersupply that he laments, even if one reduces the oversupply".

Time limit of the cash register
In the opinion of the Association Association boss doctors with their own practice should be given only temporary approval for treating patients of the statutory health insurance. A sale of the POS at the end of working life should be prohibited by law. "So far, every doctor can sell the license to pay with health insurances at the end of his professional life, so it would be better if he only took his life as a panel doctor," Pfeiffer told the newspaper. If a doctor retires, the cash register should be completed. Thus one could prevent "that again and again new physicians settle in over supplied areas."

24,000 doctors too much?
According to the health insurance companies, there are about 24,000 doctors in Germany too much. According to this, every fifth doctor with his own practice is superfluous. The German Medical Association strongly opposes it, however, and speaks of a wrong calculation of the association. This is because the Kassenverband would have used the federal government's requirements planning for the calculation, which measures how many doctors per inhabitant should work in a region. However, the number of doctors say nothing about how it really is about patient care, according to the medical representatives. Although there are more and more doctors in private practice, however, doctors work on average less and less each week. The average weekly working time has dropped from the previous 36.8 (1997) to 33.2 hours (2008). Accordingly, the actual working hours would have to be included in the calculation. Moreover, the 1993 requirements planning has little to do with today's medical services.

Rural undersupply indisputable
Undisputed, however, is the shortage in some rural regions. The Ministry of Health estimates that many doctors find settling in the countryside unattractive. Therefore, the black-yellow coalition plans a redesign of the supply law. Among other things, one wants to raise the doctors' fees for rural doctors significantly. Doctors in sparsely populated areas should also receive supplements for the training of assistant doctors. An initiative by FDP health experts, according to which a self-payment obligation is to be introduced in the event of a shortage of physicians, currently finds no majority in the black-and-yellow coalition.

Cash registers reject financial incentives for doctors
However, the bill would cause a lot of overspending for the health insurances. The coffers fear that this will result in increases in contributions and additional contributions. Because the higher costs in the billions would have to be borne in the future by the insured and not by the federal government. Therefore, the Kassenverband proposes, instead of financial incentives, to restrict access to the cash register. Then automatically more doctors would settle on the land. (Sb)

Read on this topic:
Health insurance: There is no shortage of doctors
Physician's fees lead to higher cash contributions?
FDP demands self-payment in case of lack of doctors
Doctors are in favor of reimbursement
Rösler plans payment in advance at the doctor's visit

Image: Thommy Weiss