2023-08-15 15:39:31
woman in doctor’s office
The doctors in the practices want significantly more money for their work.
(Foto: DigitalVision/Getty Images)
Berlin It is a whopping plus that the medical profession is demanding in the ongoing fee negotiations with the statutory health insurance companies: the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) is demanding more than ten percent for practices for the coming year.
Among other things, the higher expenses due to inflation and salaries are to be financed via this. Otherwise practices would have to close, warns the KBV. The demands correspond to additional expenditure of around four billion euros, which the financially strapped health insurance companies would have to pay.
Last week, the first round of negotiations ended without a result. The checkout side was only ready for an increase of 2.1 percent. The medical profession is very angry about this. At the end of August, the negotiations will enter the next round.
The financial endowment of the medical professions has long since become a political issue. Only a few weeks ago, pharmacists went on strike to enforce higher fees. Clinics want more money too. The mood in the practices is similarly irritated, and panel doctors are currently warning of a “practice collapse” across Germany.
Several medical associations have now also addressed their displeasure in a fire letter to Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and in particular criticized the role played by Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD). The letter is available to the Handelsblatt.
Doctors criticize Lauterbach
Lauterbach’s ministry got involved in the discussion with a five-page paper that lists increasing cash expenditure for outpatient care and additional income of at least two billion euros for practice owners during the corona pandemic. The paper is intended to classify the demands of the medical profession. But she sees this as an inappropriate partisanship for the checkout side.
The letter to Scholz said that the paper had to be accepted with “great surprise”. It is signed by representatives of the Virchowbund, the Hartmannbund, the community of specialist medical associations and the professional association of German internists, among others.
Karl Lauterbach (SPD)
The doctors accuse the health minister of improper partisanship in their negotiations.
(Photo: dpa)
In view of the ongoing negotiations, the paper is a “serious encroachment on the collective bargaining autonomy of the joint self-government”. The interference represents a clear violation of the state neutrality requirement. The doctors refer to the hardships and additional costs in the pandemic, the high number of patients and vaccinations.
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The required increase in fees of 10.2 percent therefore also includes a higher salary for medical assistants of 300 euros per month. Also included is an inflation compensation premium of 3000 euros.
But are the doctors’ demands justified? The KBV argues that fees increased by just 2 percent at the start of the year, well below inflation. Without more money, doctors would have to reduce their services, according to the KBV.
Practice owners earn an average of 85,555 euros net
The statutory funds, in turn, point to their deficit. “Therefore, the financial leeway for higher doctor’s fees from the funds of the contributors is limited,” said the chairwoman of the AOK federal association, Carola Reimann, the Handelsblatt. In addition, additional payments for energy-intensive practices were already made last year.
According to the Virchowbund, practice owners currently have an average net income of 85,555 euros or 7130 euros per month. They are among the top earners in Germany. Ruth Maria Schüler from the Institute of German Economics (IW) in Cologne therefore told the Handelsblatt that the demands were “very high and certainly chosen in such a way as to have bargaining chips”.
The question is whether the salary for doctors “can still be the central compensation mechanism”. Rather, it should be considered how to improve the workload of physicians in general. “Here we need fundamentally new approaches to how the work of doctors can be organized,” she said.
Simon Reif, health economist at ZEW Mannheim, considers an adjustment to inflation to be a “justified concern”, since the costs of running the practices have increased. On the other hand, the ever-increasing share of healthcare expenditure in economic performance is problematic. “Systemic solutions are needed here,” he demanded.
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