Health
Lauterbach: The end of fee caps will come
“In recent years, enormous bureaucracy has built up in practices – this must now come to an end”: Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach. photo
© Carsten Koall/dpa
After the general practitioners’ strike between the years, the Minister of Health is meeting representatives at a crisis summit today. The upper limit for fees is just one of many issues. What is Lauterbach planning?
General practitioners currently receive fixed sums for treatments. The criticism is that the money is used up before the end of the quarter and that doctors continue to work virtually unpaid afterwards.
Medical associations had called for practices to be closed nationwide in protest between the years. The Virchow Association of resident doctors threatened to close the practice for even longer in the new year if there was no approach. In addition to the “budgets”, there are also complaints about overload and too much bureaucracy. Today, representatives of the practicing medical profession are meeting with Lauterbach. The focus is on a package of measures for general practitioner practices, as ministry sources said.
The law is due to be presented in January
“We will ensure that far fewer people have to come to the practice, that bureaucracy is reduced and that the practice will also become more attractive as a place to work,” said the Health Minister. He announced that he would present the relevant law in January.
Concrete steps to relieve the burden on practices are already underway or are imminent: “So far, the practices are overcrowded because many patients come to the practice to have a prescription extended or to get a sick note,” said Lauterbach. This will soon be possible by telephone and the e-prescriptions have been able to be used since the beginning of the year. “And the electronic patient record is coming.”