Facing long wait times for specialist appointments among statutory‑insured patients, Eugen Brysch, chairman of the board of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, is demanding the abolition of referral fees. In an interview with the “Rheinische Post”, Brysch said the well‑intentioned system was “torpedoned” by service providers and criticized the additional payments that general practitioners receive for referring patients to specialists. He urged Health Minister Nina Warken (CDU) to “shut down the money‑printer” and noted that while extra contributions are skyrocketing, the minister lacks the will to remove these absurd fees.
Brysch added that without the fees, general practitioners and specialists could continue to profit from the appointment‑setting process. The “Rheinische Post” previously reported that statutory‑insured patients waited an average of 42 days for a specialist appointment in 2024, up from 33 days in 2019, while the public health‑care expenditure on open-schedule doctor visits has been rising sharply.
