Less money in corona pandemic
Every third clinic suffered severe economic losses
06/15/2023 1:02 p.m
In the Corona year 2021, every third clinic is in the red. For every ninth hospital there is even an increased risk of insolvency. However, according to the report by the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, there are significant regional differences. The experts also give a gloomy forecast.
The economic situation of the hospitals has worsened again. Almost every third clinic wrote an annual loss at group level, every ninth was even in the “red area” with an increased risk of insolvency: This is the finding of the hospital report of the RWI-Leibniz Institute for Economic Research in Essen. The figures relate to the year 2021. The main reason given for the poorer economic situation of the clinics was the decline in compensation payments as part of the corona pandemic.
In the hospital report from the previous year, the proportion of hospitals with an annual loss was 22 percent, and seven percent of the clinics were at an increased risk of insolvency at the time. The economic situation in German hospitals “deteriorated again in 2021,” explained RWI health expert Boris Augurzky. “The planned major hospital reform is a necessary step to make the German healthcare system more efficient and therefore future-proof.”
Regionally, the economic situation of the clinics shows significant differences: “The rating is significantly better in eastern Germany, worst in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg,” says the report. The Institute does not yet have any data for 2022 and the current year. However, the experts drew up a projection based on the current trends, which suggests that the situation will continue to worsen in the coming years.
Accordingly, the proportion of hospitals at risk of insolvency would increase to 18 percent in 2023 and to 44 percent by 2030. The proportion of hospitals with an annual loss would grow to 47 percent in 2023 and 58 percent by 2030. “This would create enormous pressure to adapt,” the experts sum up. The German healthcare system is “facing major challenges for which it is currently not equipped”.
Waiting for the hospital reform
The hospital report also points to the foreseeable increase in staffing difficulties. In the coming years, the labor force potential will “drop sharply” because particularly low-birth cohorts are entering the labor market. “The resulting shortage of skilled workers can only be partially counteracted with qualified immigration,” says the report.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach wants to change the financing of the clinics in the long term with a hospital reform. You should no longer be paid per case; Instead, hospitals are to receive 60 percent of the costs in the future simply for having technology and staff available. Uniform nationwide hospital levels are also planned, with which the performance level of clinics should become more transparent.
Nevertheless, the minister expects a wave of bankruptcies in German clinics. “We are really on the eve of hospital death,” Lauterbach recently told the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. “Unfortunately, clinics that aren’t bad at all will also die.”