Consumer advocate demands patient receipts

Consumer advocates are campaigning for patient receipts.

(31.07.2010) The chairman of the Association of Consumer Organizations, Gerd Billen, has requested patient receipts, which are issued after each visit to the doctor. With such a receipt, patients should be able to check exactly which services were performed by the attending physician.

Background of this demand is likely to be the ongoing scandals to wrongly billed services of doctors. These costs cause the health insurance companies each year amounts in millions height. But the patient receipts should not only serve to control doctors, but also create a new awareness of patients. Citizens should be given a detailed overview of applications, examinations and drug prescriptions. Statutory insured persons would thus have a better overview of what the individual medical services actually cost. This was said by the head of the Consumer Centers Billen in an interview with the German newspaper "Rheinische Post". Because many patients do not know how much they actually cost. A receipt from the doctor would provide transparency, says Billen. On average, every insured person incurs an average of € 3,000 a year in treatment costs.

In addition, Billen suggested to reduce the density of doctors in the urban centers of cities. Because the more doctors there are, the more doctor's visits would take place. The top consumer advocate also criticized the fact that there are many doctors in affluent areas, but in the country a real shortage. For example, Billen told RP: "It is absurd that most of the doctors in the neighborhoods where the wealthy live, and on the other hand, the health insurances and professional associations do not manage to provide better coverage In rural areas, we urgently need a different approach. " (Sb)