Prevention Courses Central testing center opened

Prevention courses: Health insurance funds establish a central testing center

02/15/2014

In the future, prevention courses for insured persons should be subject to quality control. Several large statutory health insurance funds have established a central prevention office for this purpose. This should ensure more quality, less testing and a better overview of 360,000 courses.

119 participating health insurances with 47 million insured
From now on, prevention courses for insured persons should be subject to quality control. To ensure this, have the association of alternative health insurance (vdek) (Barmer GEK, technician health insurance, DAK health, commercial health insurance - KKH, HEK - Hanseatic health insurance, hkk), the BKK umbrella organization, the IKK classic, the miners, the social security For agriculture, forestry and horticulture, the BIG directly healthy and the IKK Brandenburg and Berlin since January 1, 2014, a joint testing center for prevention courses set up. 47 million citizens are insured in the 119 health insurance companies involved.

More than 360,000 courses
In the future, the testing laboratory will ensure that the currently nationwide more than 360,000 courses offered by these health insurance funds in the field of prevention are uniformly reviewed with a view to their quality. This should happen centrally and individual checks of the funds should be omitted in the future. In a note from the participating funds, the new concept refers to courses offered in the fields „Move“, „nutrition“, „Stress management / relaxation“ such as „Drug use“. Course providers can upload their concepts on the quality portal www.zentrale-pruefstelle-praevention.de and will receive an answer within 10 days as to whether the course meets the qualitative requirements. The positively audited courses would be subsidized by the respective fund.

Certified courses on health insurance websites
The quality-tested prevention courses can be accessed by insured persons via the respective website of their health insurance. The database now contains around 369,000 certified courses from around 116,000 providers from all over the country. The health insurance funds are required by law, in particular to check the qualification of course providers as well as performance records and coachmanship. If a prevention course is to be subsidized, it must meet all legal quality requirements. Franz Knieps, board member of the BKK umbrella association, explained in a statement from the participating funds: „So far, each health insurance company examined the courses themselves. This could lead to different test results for the same course and provider.“ Double checks at the coffers as well as different price quality assessments were a thing of the past due to the much more efficient test procedure.

Quality check every three years
Ulrike Elsner, the chairman of the association of alternative health insurance companies, now expects a quality boost in the prevention courses. The tested courses received the seal in the future „German standard prevention“ and thus every insured can immediately recognize which courses comply with the required standards. „Only the providers who offer the required quality can be subsidized by the health insurance companies. The amount of the subsidy is regulated by all health insurances individually via their statutes,“ so Elsner. The courses must also every three years again make a quality check. Elsner emphasizes: „This regular central check ensures that the (quite deliberate) competition of the health insurance companies does not affect the quality.“ The newly established testing center has also attracted attention from other funds. For example, the AOK Rheinland / Hamburg joined the cooperation community on 1 February 2014, the AOK Nordwest and the IKK Südwest were close to signing the contract and accession talks would also be held with the other AOKs. (Ad)

Picture: Peter Friday