The controversial realignment of the clinics is making progress. The government sends plans for a major reform to parliament – and the debates continue.
Hospitals in Germany should be under less financial pressure and specialize more in treatments. This is the aim of the legislative plans from Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), which the cabinet launched on Wednesday.
The reform is intended to change the current remuneration with flat rates for treatment cases. In the future, clinics should receive 60 percent of the remuneration for providing certain offers. The basis for financing by the health insurance companies should also be more precisely defined “performance groups”. They are intended to describe certain clinic treatments in more detail and ensure uniform nationwide quality standards.
Lauterbach said that with the reform the government is pulling the emergency brake: “Without changing the structures of inpatient care, there is a risk of clinic insolvencies, poor treatment and long journeys.” The new regulations should ensure good inpatient treatment for everyone in an aging society. “We will therefore replace flat rates per case, which currently often determine medical action, with flat rates and quality specifications. Then the medical need determines the treatment, not the economy.”
The states have registered objections to the plans. However, Lauterbach no longer designed the law in such a way that it required approval in the Federal Council. The draft is now being discussed in the Bundestag. The law is scheduled to come into force at the beginning of 2025, with concrete implementation to follow step by step in the years thereafter.
Source: Stern
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