Health
“Penalty fee” in emergency care triggers criticism
A doctor examines a small patient in the Olgahospital of the Klinikum Stuttgart. photo
© Sebastian Gollnow/dpa
Parents not only go to the emergency doctor with seriously ill children, but also with a “pimple on the buttocks” – at least according to the accusation of a medical official who wants to charge a fee in such cases. But there is resistance.
A possible special fee for parents who visit the medical emergency service with their children without an acute need has met with widespread rejection. The German Hospital Society (DKG) and the Central Association of Health Insurance Funds opposed a proposal by Thomas Fischbach, President of the professional association paediatricians. The Federal Ministry of Health also expressed reservations.
In view of the scarce resources in the emergency service, Fischbach had suggested a financial levy for certain cases. “Emergency care must be focused on emergencies and not for the pimples on the children’s buttocks, for which the parents have no time during the week and with which you then open the emergency service at the weekend,” he told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “In such cases, I think it would make sense for the insured to pay their own contribution.”
For Helge Dickau from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, on the other hand, it would be wrong “to burden the parents of sick children with the decision as to whether the way to the emergency room is necessary or not – and then to punish them with fees if they are supposedly wrong”. The DKG chairman Gerald Gaß also emphasized: “We don’t need new proposals that create financial hurdles before the use of emergency care.” What is needed instead is functioning patient counseling and control in order to distinguish between real emergencies and minor illnesses.
Concept for emergency care without “penalty fee”
A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Health only referred to the proposals for reforming emergency care that a government commission had recently presented. There is no provision for a “penalty fee”. In February of this year, the expert commission presented a concept for more effective emergency care. Among other things, it proposes new integrated control centers that make an initial medical assessment over the phone and are intended to relieve emergency service practices and emergency rooms.
Just a few months ago, Andreas Gassen, head of statutory health insurance physicians, proposed an emergency fee for those cases in which patients go directly to the emergency room without first calling the control center or without having acute symptoms. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) gave this project a clear rejection at the time.