German Parliament Sides with Medical Innovation

December 22, 2008 – 1:25 am

The German parliament has made it easier for hospitals to request reimbursement for innovative medical technologies, BVMed announced in a press release. The passage of the Hospital Financing Reform Act (Krankenhausfinanzierungsreformgesetz, KHRG) on Friday introduces a measure of flexibility when requesting reimbursement for these technologies from the health insurance funds. The act mitigates a rigid reimbursement deadline that was hampering innovative treatment. “This is an important step toward an efficient and modern type of healthcare,” said BVMed director general and board member Joachim M. Schmitt.

“The innovation clause (section 6 of the hospital reimbursement act) was the right decision made by lawmakers,” added Schmitt. Its implementation has been spotty, however, because of the hoops that hospitals had to jump through. Few reimbursement requests were filed as a result.

“The decision made yesterday was a significant improvement,” said Schmitt. “A further step is needed now to make the application and assessment procedure for new examination and treatment methods (Neue Untersuchungs- und Behandlungsmethoden, NUB) more transparent and less bureaucratic. The full benefit of the innovation clause can then be developed,” added Schmitt.

At the end of January 2009, the German Institute for Hospital Reimbursement (InEK, Institut für das Entgeltsystem im Krankenhaus) will publish its assessment of the reimbursement of NUB applications made in 2008. The applications were made by individual hospitals that wanted to offer innovative therapies to patients. Before patients could benefit from a positive InEK decision, however, they had to wait for up to a year, because hospitals could only submit NUB reimbursement applications to the healthcare funds once a year at the end of their budget negotiations.

That requirement led to a slow-down in the speed of innovation in Germany, according to BVMed, in addition to creating systemic injustice in patient-care results. In essence, innovations were available only for patients who were lucky enough to be treated in the autumn, after the budgets had been authorized, and not at the beginning of the year, noted the association. Lawmakers recognized this deplorable state of affairs and made the application procedure more flexible. Remunerations can be agreed to earlier and are not tied to a budgetary timeline, states the amendment.

Norbert Sparrow

Tags: BVMed, Hospital Financing Reform Act, Joachim M. Schmitt, Krankenhausfinanzierungsreformgesetz