Doctors' fees lead to higher cash contributions?

Higher doctor's fees lead to higher cash contributions? The Federal Minister of Health is planning a new supply law. Land physicians will receive higher compensation in the future, to compensate for the shortage of doctors in rural areas. The health insurance funds, however, fear further contribution increases.

28/02/2011

The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV) fears a significant increase in cash contributions due to the planned increase in fees for doctors in private practice, which was planned by the black-and-yellow coalition. The federal government wants to take action against the shortage of doctors in rural areas with the care law. With higher fees and premiums, physicians are encouraged to open medical practices in rural areas. The health insurance companies, however, denied a serious shortage of land physicians.

The statutory health insurance fears a further increase in the cash contributions, although only at the beginning of the year the contribution rate was raised to 15.5 percent. The Federal Minister of Health Philipp Rösler (FDP) plans a new supply law to reduce the shortage of doctors in rural areas. Essentially, physicians who have their own practice should receive higher fees if they move to the country. Just that increase in fees could have a negative impact for insured. Finally, the higher health costs are passed on to the members of the fund.

In an interview with „World Online“ The minister stressed that it wanted to take care to lift the shortage of doctors in rural areas. This would require incentives for medical professionals. After all, „We have to make sure that there are more doctors again. "The Federal Association of Health Insurance Funds sees it in a very different way: there is a real oversupply in cities, and the density of doctors is so high that there are actually too many doctors The country, however, lacked just 800 doctors instead of the number of 20,000 mentioned by Rösler.A better strategy is to redistribute the fees within the medical profession, the deputy GKV chairman Johann Magnus von Stackelberg told the „Frankfurter Allgemeine“. "If you want to give the so-called land physicians more money, then you have to redeploy within the medical profession." This means that the health insurances propose to reduce the doctors' fees in the cities and to grant the land physicians higher reimbursements.

But the German government does not want to hear about such proposals. On the contrary, instead of this, additional expenditure in the millions is planned. „Hospitals in underserved areas should receive a financial incentive when training general practitioners“, said the Minister of Health. At the same time, the upper limits of health insurance expenditures for practicing dentists should be lifted. From the ranks of the coalitions it was said that an annual amount of millions in three-digit number must be applied. The news agency „dpa“ Meanwhile, a corresponding position paper of the Federal Government is available. It states, among other things, that doctors should receive higher funding if they give up a practice in a city with a high density of doctors and instead open one in the countryside. However, exact amounts are not mentioned in the paper. But here, too, the subsidies are likely to go into the millions. In March of this year, the black-yellow coalition wants to negotiate within their circles on the draft Röslers. At the same time, the Federal Minister of Health wants to enter into negotiations with the federal states.

The health insurance association made it clear that doctors already have very high salaries. On average, a physician with his own practice earns about 169,000 euros (after tax deduction, practice costs, including income from private services and patients). That means a net profit compared to the previous year of about 5000 Euro per year. Overall, the health insurance funds for medical fees over 33.4 billion euros. That's an estimated 1.3 billion euros more than in 2010.

In this context, the vice-chief of the general local health insurance AOK, Jürgen Graalmann criticized the unreliability of the government in terms of agreements. So said this opposite the „Handelsblatt“: „We have been confident that the Union will comply with its announcement that contributors will not be charged additional fees for doctors, dentists and hospitals.“ But now you give in to the pressure of the doctor's lobby, according to Graalmann.

There have never been so many doctors as it is now, reminded CEO of the Association of Substitute Funds, Thomas Ballast. Between 1993 and 2009, the number of doctors increased from 104,600 to 137,400. Ballast demanded that doctors with a cash register always have to treat legally insured persons. Recently, the ENT Doctors' Association called on its members to treat fewer cash-desk patients in order to sell more private benefits.

If the health insurances have to increase their contributions, then the insured must bear the contribution burden themselves. Because the parity principle was lifted at the beginning of the year as part of the health care reform. The employer's share has been frozen until further notice. (Sb)

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Picture: Rainer Sturm