Rate with the technician health insurance doctors

The Techniker Krankenkasse enters the doctor navigator project of AOK and Barmer GEK

06/09/2011

The medical navigator Barmer GEK, AOK and White List enjoys a growing enthusiasm among the insured. To complement the offer, the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) is now taking part in the project. From the beginning of 2012, TC insured persons can also actively evaluate their doctors.

In the future, insured members of the statutory technician health insurance fund can participate in the evaluation of medical practices and medical practitioners. From January 2012 the cash register will be added to the project „doctor Navigator“ with a. According to this, around 38 million patients can actively evaluate their treating physicians and contribute to improving the medical landscape. Thus, the offer is about 50 percent of all cash patients in Germany open. The AOK welcomed the attendance of the Techniker Kasse. The future AOK CEO Jürgen Graalmann said in Berlin: "We are pleased that our physician navigator is put on an even broader basis by the participation of another large cash register". Dr. Brigitte Mohn, board member of the Bertelsmann Stiftung added that the success of the project depends to a large extent on the participation of the insured.

Online Doctor Navigator: Rate and inform
Using the online navigator, patients can obtain comprehensive information about doctors' practices and doctors. First, the participants must register with their cash register number on the portal. Nevertheless, the assessments will take place anonymously because the name of the patient does not appear on the evaluation platform. Insured persons should come in search of a doctor „objective aid to the hand“ to get. The doctor navigator is supervised by the Bertelsmann Foundation, the Federal Working Group Self-Help, the German Working Group Self-Help Groups, the Forum of chronically ill and disabled people in the Paritätischer Gesamtverband, the Sozialverband VdK and the Bundesverband der Verbraucherzentrale. The goal of the project is to the users „a doctor search with new quality“ to provide. According to Barmer GEK, the physician search portal has created a new standard on the Internet.

So that doctors are not affected by unjustified evaluations, publications will only be released when the user has written a certain minimum number of contributions, as Dr. Jens Baas, member of the TK board emphasized. With this measure one wants to strengthen also the confidence of the doctors. In May, medical representatives had warned against possible wrong assessments and expressed cautious criticism. Meanwhile, the fears have died down. The Chairman of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, Carl-Heinz Müller, said: "The questionnaire has been developed according to high scientific standards.“ The questionnaires can help to support quality assurance.

Since its launch in May 2011, according to the initiators, around three million visitors have been registered. A large proportion is already actively using the portal for physician search and evaluation. Around 80,000 evaluation forms have since been filled out by the insured. On the platform can be found about 130,000 outpatient GPs and specialists.

The community portal is divided internally again. At the AOK the online navigator is called "AOK-Arztnavigator" and at Barmer GEK "BARMER GEK Arztnavigator". Perspectively, the search is also to be extended to psychotherapists, as mental illness in today's society are becoming increasingly important. "Already today, there are specific questions about pediatricians, which are automatically recorded when the user selects a pediatrician for evaluation," said Barmer GEK Deputy CEO, Rolf Schlenker. It is not excluded that more health insurance funds will participate in the project.

Long waiting times and little information: Many patients are dissatisfied
The review portal is sorely needed, as a recent study by the AOK's Scientific Institute (WidO) revealed. In one survey, every fourth participant said that he was the attending physician „The actual cause of the health problem has not been fully addressed“. 22 percent said they were not adequately informed by the doctor. One in ten even said that some prescribed treatments and diagnostics „unnecessary“ were. The survey was attended by 3000 people. (Sb)

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