The Federal Association of Statutory Health Physicians (KBV) has issued a warning that the government’s planned health care reform could lead to a dramatic decline in available medical services. According to a report in “Bild” (Saturday edition), which cited a document from the KBV, approximately 46 million treatment cases are projected to be lost annually.
The KBV warned that the planned measures could visibly restrict the quality and quantity of care. The document states that “the number of unpaid treatment cases sums up to approximately 46 million in the coming year” representing an eight percent deficit.
A potential scenario calculated by the physicians is particularly drastic: if practices were limited to the legally mandated minimum of 25 consultation hours per week, an estimated 169 million treatment cases would disappear. The KBV traces this negative development to the planned restriction of compensation within outpatient care.
Andreas Gassen, Chairman of the KBV Board, told the newspaper that if the law proceeds in its current form, the regional healthcare associations will have to adjust the outpatient services according to legal requirements-which, plainly, means they must reduce them. He described the reform as a “draconian austerity law” that would negatively impact patient care.
