Health: Cash registers warn of softening the clinic reform

Germany’s health insurance companies warn of a softening of the hospital reform through intended post -controls. “With the currently discussed hospital reform adaptation law, the federal states should receive far-reaching exceptional regulations,” said Stefanie Stoff-Ahnis, deputy chairman of the GKV Spitzenverband, the German Press Agency in Berlin. “Instead of really binding minimum standards in all of Germany, such as the minimum number of doctors depending on the field, the federal states should be able to fall below them relatively freely.”

Fabric-Ahnis warned: “A softening of the planned quality requirements would fundamentally endanger the central goals of the reform, i.e. a nationwide uniform and high quality of treatment for more patient safety.” The federal states should be able to deviate from uniform quality criteria. The result would be that hospitals could continue to offer benefits in the future “for which they do not provide the necessary personnel and technical equipment or sufficient experience”.

Reform should reduce the clinic network

According to the Association of Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU), a hearing will take place on this Thursday. In order to make the reform implementable on site, the countries should be given more design options. Warking and the countries had voted in July to improve the reform that was still enforced by the traffic light coalition against protests. It came into force in early 2025 and is to be implemented by 2029. The network of the 1,700 clinics is likely to be smaller.

Cash register association warns of care for the opportunity

The cash register association called for: “The quality of treatment must not depend on which federal state someone comes to the hospital, but that is exactly what is threatened.” Instead of more experience and routine, especially in complicated operations, Germany would again have a occasional supply – “at the expense of quality”, according to Stoff -Ahnis. “The patients sometimes suffer from their lives.”

As “completely incomprehensible”, she criticized the planned deletion of nationwide accessibility requirements for exceptions. According to experts, this deals with a minor can be dealt with: if it does not exist, then a federal state could practically always explain that the nationwide care is endangered – even if prerequisites like enough staff are not met. The Greens had already warned of the reform principles.