New portal for complaints about IGeL services

Doctors often do not explain enough about IGeL services

09/02/2014

Whether ultrasound examinations, cancer screening or acupuncture: who with a so-called „Individual health care“ (IGeL) is not satisfied, can in the future on the new Internet portal www.igel-aerger.de the consumer center (VZ) North Rhine-Westphalia complain. An important step, because according to the VZ physicians would often not educate their patients sufficiently about the costs and risks of such a service.

Consulting and education at IGeL are especially important
With the term „individual health care“ - short „Hedgehog“ - The term refers to services that physicians and psychotherapists can offer their legally insured patients against self-payment. These include ultrasound examinations, glaucoma and cancer screening examinations, certain laboratory services and medicines or naturopathic therapies such as Bach flower therapy or bloodletting. As these services go beyond normal patient care and are therefore not covered by statutory health insurance, prior information on the costs, benefits and possible risks of the offer is particularly important. It is crucial that the patient is not pushed, but allows or refuses to perform an IGeL voluntarily - accordingly, the doctor can not demand payment even without a written contract.

Patients often feel pressured
Therefore, prior to performing an additional benefit, the physician must accordingly list the costs in writing and issue a written invoice based on the medical fee schedule after the treatment. However, in the opinion of the Verbraucherzentrale (VZ) of North Rhine-Westphalia, there seems to be some serious gaps here. In addition, patients were often not sufficiently informed about possible risks of benefits, instead, patients often felt pressured. In order to provide patients with support, the VZ has now established a new portal on which complaints are formulated and experiences with the handling of IGeL in various practices are collected. However, according to the VZ, igel-aerger.de is not provided for the evaluation of the medical benefit, but this is also possible online, including on the portal www.igel-monitor.de of the GKV-Spitzenverband.

VZ wants to expose grievances and fight for the rights of patients
The idea behind the new portal igel-aerger.de is therefore above all the transmission of information and the opportunity for patients to vent their anger towards certain doctors. The goal is, thereby „Reveal grievances and fight for your rights as a patient“ according to the VZ on their website. For this purpose, sufferers from now on on a separate complaint page „their clenched IGeL-anger“ with personal details or anonymous descriptions - such as a woman, for example, who, despite a palpable knot in the left breast, should pay for the examination of the other breast as an Igel performance. „I was speechless. If the profit is so in the foreground, that really does not create confidence and I no longer feel well and objectively advised“, so the entry of the patient on igel-aerger.de. (No)