Dentist treatments for AOK patients at risk?

Dentist treatments for AOK patients in Berlin at risk?

Because at the general local health insurance AOK-Berlin-Brandenburg, the annual budget for dental treatments by a whopping 7.6 million euros was exceeded, AOK patients in Berlin with restrictions on dental care, as the Kassenzahnärztliche Vereinigung in Berlin (KZV) averaged yesterday.

For the year 2010, the budget at the AOK Berlin-Brandenburg for treatments at the dentist has already been used up. Dentists treating AOK patients would therefore have to forego their fees for the remainder of the year, because the health insurance fund does not provide any additional funds, according to the Doctors Association. The number of dental treatments performed could not be controlled. Because the more patients suffer from toothache and require root canal treatment or filling, the higher the cost. The budget was 12.49 percent (7.6 million euros), although the year still lasts two and a half months until the turn of the year.

Dental emergencies are treated
The health insurance claims that the treatments at the dentist are safe. "Emergencies must be treated in any case," says the AOK. If it is medically justifiable, dentists may postpone the therapies to the coming year. However, dental practices are likely to be patients on the grounds that they are „AOK-insured“, do not just dismiss. Whether patients can actually check whether they are already rejected by an appointment, because they are insured with the AOK, is more than questionable. However, the Kassenärztliche Vereinigung emphasizes that the fight for higher fees should not be carried out on the backs of the patients. "We do not want to carry the fight for the fees on the back of the patients and will continue to grind teeth-grindingly," said Dr. Jörg-Peter Husemann, Dentist and Chief Executive Officer of the Dentists Association. In the course of this, the medical representative called for higher budgets for the coming year to avoid such situations. Husemann pointed out that other local health insurance funds in Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg simply overfilled budgets in part. However, the AOK Berlin-Brandenburg still refuses to replenish the budgets. (sb, 22.10.2010)

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