There is the intensive care specialist at the district clinic in Ebersberg near Munich, who said, “we are simply under maximum stress”. There is the caregiver from Essen who reported stress, anxiety and tiredness. There is the nurse in Munich, who at the end of 2021 did not have to work on Christmas Eve for the first time in three years. The pandemic has demanded a lot from nurses and medical professionals alike. First there was applause from the balconies, then the nursing staff in clinics and homes should receive a corona bonus of up to 1500 euros, from 2020 onwards as a small thank you, mostly paid for by the federal government.
That was well thought out, also by the then Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU). But badly done. The Federal Court of Auditors (BRH) has checked the corona premiums for care facilities. The bitter realization of the control authority for state finances: The procedure for paying out the premiums was “prone to error and abuse”. This is what it says in a current test report by the BRH, which went to the Bundestag these days. The report lies there Süddeutsche ZeitungNDR and WDR.
According to the test report, many nurses apparently did not even get the bonus. According to the report, numerous care facilities had “not applied for federal funds to be paid out”. On the other hand, some company owners have not only claimed the state bonus for their employees, but “wrongly” also for themselves.
This year, nurses in homes and clinics are to receive another corona bonus, for which Spahn’s successor Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to spend one billion euros. With their special commitment, nursing staff have ensured that Germany has been able to cope with the pandemic so far,” says Lauterbach.
Court of Auditors draws a gloomy conclusion
The payment of the bonus to the 1.2 million employees should follow the same pattern as the first Corona bonus. The Court of Auditors fears “that the susceptibility of the previous procedure to errors and abuse” will continue with the care bonus. The BRH draws a gloomy conclusion from the state’s corona aid measures for hospitals, for nursing staff and with the free quick tests for the citizens. “In large parts, the foreseeable abuse of the use of funds has not been and will not be effectively counteracted by procedural regulations.” The criticism hits Spahn as well as Lauterbach.
The Verdi services union had already criticized the fact that many nursing staff did not even get the Corona bonus in the spring. that be “Just disgraceful,” board member Sylvia Bühler said indignantly. After all, it’s about employees who often only get the minimum wage and who are “extremely challenged and at risk” in the pandemic. Bühler referred to a study by a large tax consulting company that analyzed the figures from more than a thousand nursing services.
In 2020, the nurses were applauded from the balconies. Many did not receive the promised bonus.
(Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa)
The result of this apparently unrepresentative study was devastating. Only just under 60 percent of employees in geriatric care would have received a corona bonus in 2020. Most of them in Brandenburg, the fewest in Baden-Württemberg. The amount of the bonus also varied greatly – between an average of 757 euros per person in Bavaria and 1125 euros in Saxony-Anhalt. According to Verdi board member Bühler, there can be “no excuse” for the failure of nursing services to pay the premium. Nursing homes and nursing companies should be able to “apply for a government-funded premium and pass it on to workers.” Everything else shows disinterest or “possibly even self-enrichment”.
In any case, the Federal Ministry of Health did not envisage that so many nursing staff could actually go away empty-handed. On its website, the ministry explained: “In order to receive the federally funded part of the bonus, you as an employee do not have to do anything. You will automatically receive the bonus from your employer, who must also inform you about the bonus.” The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, in which all statutory health insurance companies are organized, points out that in this year’s bonus round, the institutions are legally obliged to pay the premium to employees by December 31st at the latest. In addition, they would have to “show the actual payment amount of the care bonuses and the number of recipients” to the care insurance funds by mid-February 2023.
The state funds for the care bonus are paid out via the health insurance companies. Upon request, Barmer confirmed that not all care facilities had applied for state money for the first premium in 2020. With the new bonus for 2022, the applications would still be processed. “Therefore, we cannot yet make a final statement on how many care facilities have waived an application.”
The AOK reports that bonus applications from company owners for themselves have been identified. “In the event of anomalies, a corresponding rejection or refund followed. We do not know the exact number.” In 2021, the long-term care insurance funds affiliated to the health insurance companies would have reclaimed a total of 13.4 million euros in “unjustly paid federal funds” from the long-term care facilities. Here, too, the Court of Auditors found deficiencies. Some health insurance companies “did not claim back federal funds that were wrongly paid from the care facilities”.
The audit report of the control authority for state finances is to be discussed in November in the responsible budget or auditing committee of the Bundestag and only then published. The Ministry of Health has already taken a position; the BRH has already taken his advice into account. This means: From the point of view of the Court of Auditors, the Ministry has not been able to refute the criticism contained in the audit report.
Hidden subsidies for hospitals
In addition, there is fundamental criticism from nursing and welfare associations of the new Corona bonus. The premium was too low and its distribution was “highly incomprehensible and unfair,” the German Nursing Council, in which the most important nursing and welfare organizations are organized, complained in the spring. Certain clinics are excluded. Many nurses, especially in hospitals, would not even get the bonus. That would lead to “enormous resentment”.
The Court of Auditors has even more to complain about at the Ministry of Health: For example, with the compensation payments for hospitals amounting to 15 billion euros from 2020 to 2022 because treatments have been postponed or suspended due to the pandemic. Which led to lower income. The BRH partly regards this as a hidden subsidy. From January to May 2021, “more state aid went to hospitals” than they lost due to the pandemic.
And then there are the rapid corona tests in private test stations, which are only completely and now largely paid for by the state. There was and still is massive fraud here: station operators charge for more tests than were actually carried out. The Court of Auditors refers to information from the investigative authorities, according to which there is some organized crime committed by gangs and for commercial purposes. Lauterbach wants to put an end to this with a new test regulation.
Lauterbach’s new model provides for a three-stage but rather complicated test. According to the BRH such an “effective fight against fraud” is “hardly possible”.