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Statutory health insurance companies advertise with seals such as “top health insurance company” and “sustainability champion”, which are often awarded by publishers. After SWRThe Competition Center considers this information to be misleading in some cases.
“You can trust us” – this is the slogan used by the “Bundesinnungskasse Gesundheit”, or “BIG direct healthy” for short, on its website. Among them: several advertising seals that were recently awarded by the magazine “Focus Money”.
One of them is “Top health insurance company”. However, if you look at the corresponding ranking, you will see that “BIG Direkt Gesundheit” comes in 19th place out of a total of 64 health insurance companies tested. Does this really make you a “top health insurance company”?
For an evaluation the SWR This and other examples were presented to the Competition Center – a self-regulatory institution of the German economy. In the case of “BIG direct healthy”, the responsible lawyer Christiane Köber sees a clear violation of the legally regulated ban on misleading advertising: “20 health insurance companies have received the designation ‘top health insurance company’. But there are significant differences between places 1 and 20 Score. You would have to classify it differently if the 20 health insurance companies all had similar scores,” is their assessment.
The competition center now issued a warning to “BIG Direkt Gesundheit” to stop advertising with the seal. The cash register writes this down SWR-Request that you have “on the designation and categorization by Focus Money […] no influence.” The advertising with the corresponding seal “is in no way intended to represent ‘Top of the Tops’.”
After warning: health insurance company removes seal
“Pronova BKK” – in 18th place in the ranking – also placed corresponding advertising on its website and was warned by the competition headquarters. The fund does not want to comment further due to the ongoing proceedings. However, the “Top Health Insurance Fund” seal can no longer be found on the corresponding page. According to the competition headquarters, the fund has now issued a cease and desist declaration.
The competition headquarters sees another case of misleading in the case of the Berlin “BKK VBU”. She advertises with the “Performance for Families” seal from “Focus Money”, where she received the grade “very good”. In the corresponding ranking, however, cash registers with the “excellent” award are ahead.
“The consumer bases the grading on the school grading scale and will expect that ‘very good’ is the top grade,” is the opinion of the competition center in a corresponding warning. The “BKK VBU” now wants to examine this.
The responsible Burda publishing house reports this SWR He said he could not comment on the specific warnings because he was not aware of them. Rankings and tests are an integral part of “Focus” or “Focus Money” and offer readers and consumers orientation. We pay attention to the “high level of meaningfulness of our reviews”.
Systematic label abuse?
After SWR-Research shows that there are many other rankings and seals with well-sounding awards. For Jürgen Stellpflug from the association “Testwatch – The Consumer Users” the system has it. He speaks of “abuse of labels” and “consumer deception”. His assessment in an interview with SWR: “As many labels as possible with good grades are generated so that they can then be sold.” He is critical of the fact that statutory health insurance companies pay to be able to advertise with questionable seals. After all, the health insurance companies finance themselves with the money of their insured people.
Advertising with a seal of approval in exchange for money
In February a ruling by the Munich Regional Court (4 HK O 14545/21) It is known that if the “Top Doctor” seal was used, 1,900 euros were charged. In the case, the competition center had sued – because of the allegedly misleading award of the seal of quality in the magazine “Focus”. The responsible Burda publishing house defends itself SWR-Request the model of advertising with seals for money. The effort required to develop and carry out tests is high. Depending on the industry and effort, the license fees “spanned a wide range”.
But even among health insurance companies that advertise with the seals, there are doubts about this business – for example with the now warned “BIG direct healthy”. The supply of seals is increasing “from year to year,” according to the statement. For her, it’s not about “representing as many seals as possible”. However, this mechanism cannot be avoided for competitive reasons.
Other health insurance companies emphasize this SWR, you are in a competition that is wanted by the legislature. Accordingly, they also want to use test seals to draw attention to certain service offerings.
Controversial data basis
The data basis for the test seals is sometimes criticized. The Munich Regional Court’s decision on the “top doctors” states that it creates the “misleading impression that there are actual, objectively verifiable criteria that led to the award of the seal of quality,” according to the court. The court is critical of the fact that more subjective criteria such as colleague recommendations are included in the evaluation. The Burda publishing house defends this approach and sees overall a “high-quality methodology of the doctor lists and the admissibility of the seals based on them”. The publisher is taking legal action against the ruling from Munich.
The competition center also sees seals for health insurance companies as a critical data basis. The “IKK Classic” advertises with the “Sustainability Champion” seal, which is awarded by the newspaper “Die Welt”. The basis for this is a consumer survey. “You don’t expect that with a seal like this. You expect that a neutral third party will check sustainability according to objective criteria,” says lawyer Köber. The “consumer survey” is referred to in the small print. However, this is “completely lost” in the overall context.
The competition center has now also issued a warning to “IKK Classic”. The cash register comments on this SWR-No specific request. Just this much: stick to the legal requirements. Axel Springer Verlag, which is responsible for the “Welt”, said this SWR in a statement that “all information about this broad investigation and this seal would be disclosed with a high level of transparency.”
“Scarcity” internally concerned about shortages Customer satisfaction
Effective advertising is one thing. The example of “Knappschaft”, which has around 1.4 million insured people, shows that some health insurance companies discuss completely different survey results internally. On its website it advertises the “Recommended by Customers” and “Highest Customer Satisfaction” awards from “Focus Money”.
SWR-Research shows: Internally there is concern because other surveys do not come to such positive results. The minutes of a management meeting in April 2021 say: “The ratings of ‘Schnappschaft’ in the GKV-wide surveys on the topic of satisfaction and service have dropped significantly in some cases.”
Just a “snapshot”?
In November 2022, an employee reported to the managing director in an email that survey results had “further deteriorated”. Accordingly, the “scarcity” in the so-called “Customer Monitor Germany” in the “Global Satisfaction” category had fallen from 5th place (2016) to 20th place (2022) over the years.
However, the “Knappenschaft” has not published the latest results. Confronted with this, the health insurance company told him SWR that customer surveys are “always a snapshot”. Results from the “Customer Monitor” are not comparable to other health insurance comparisons, such as those from “Focus Money”. Since 2020, the “Customer Monitor” results have only been used “for internal quality checks”. Two years earlier, the “Knappenschaft” had advertised on its website with rather positive results.