Association is pushing for cancellation fee
Patients often leave doctors unexcused
8/3/2023 5:02 p.m
The search for a free doctor’s appointment is often complicated. According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, one reason for this is the patients themselves: in many cases they should make appointments and then simply not come. The KBV therefore demands a cancellation fee.
Seven out of ten medical practices complain about problems with missed appointments for their patients. In 40 percent of the practices affected, it is about 5 to 10 percent of all appointments for which patients do not show up. This is the result of an online survey by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, which the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” reports on. In numerous practices, the proportion is even 10 to 20 percent.
It is more than annoying when patients book appointments and simply let them pass, complains KBV boss Andreas Gassen. “The appointments are blocked and are then not available for other patients.”
In order to limit the damage, Gassen renewed the Federal Association’s demand for a “cancellation fee to be paid by the health insurance companies if their insured persons make appointments and then do not keep them”. Conversely, demands on the practices for faster and more appointments are “simply ridiculous” in view of the numbers.
New task for practice doctors?
At the same time, the KBV wants to entrust practice doctors with new tasks in order to significantly reduce the number of hospital operations. “We need a turnaround in operations,” Gassen recently told the “Bild” newspaper. “There are still far too many inpatient treatments in Germany. Of the approximately 16 million a year, three to four million could be carried out on an outpatient basis, i.e. also by resident doctors.”
A reform of emergency care also envisages that panel doctors should regularly step into emergency practices near clinics in the future in order to treat less urgent cases there. According to the Central Institute of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Germany, around 200 million patients per year are treated as acute patients by resident statutory health insurance physicians in practices.