More transparency needed in the healthcare system – SBK publishes appendix to the 2013 annual financial statements

08.12.2014 15:45

For the first time, by the end of November 2014, all statutory health insurance companies made their finances transparent by publishing them in the Federal Gazette. Dr. Hans Unterhuber, board member of the Siemens company health insurance company SBK, expressly welcomes the disclosure: "Every insured person has the right to know how their health insurance company is doing." The board is calling for even more transparency in statutory health insurance (GKV). The SBK was therefore the first German health insurance company to publish the appendix to its 2013 annual financial statements today.

For the first time in the history of the GKV, the health insurance companies had to publish their annual results in the Federal Gazette by the end of November. For the 2013 financial year, it was regulated in detail for the first time as to which key financial figures must be disclosed. Until now, each of the 131 statutory health insurance companies had decided for themselves which information to publish in the annual business report - and which not. By publishing it in the Federal Gazette, the finances of the individual health insurance companies are now transparent for all contributors for the first time. “We strongly welcome this obligation to disclose,” explains Dr. Hans Unterhuber: “This transparency was long overdue.”

The SBK has been disclosing its finances in its annual business report for many years. In addition, it is one of the few health insurance companies that also publish their quarterly figures. “It is a matter of course for us to keep our insured persons, but also interested parties, our employees and the general public informed about our financial development,” explains Unterhuber.

Now the SBK is going one step further: The fund has published its appendix to the 2013 annual financial statements on its website today - an absolute first in the GKV. According to legal regulations, health insurance companies must prepare an appendix as part of the annual financial statements, but this does not have to be published. This document contains information that is necessary to explain the annual financial statements and is of material importance for assessing the financial situation. These include, among other things, assets and liabilities, credit balances, investments and provisions. The appendix is also confirmed by the auditor's report. “By publishing this, we are consciously going beyond the legal transparency standard,” explains Unterhuber. He also calls on the other health insurance companies to provide full information about their finances. “Statutory health insurance companies manage public funds – absolute transparency is mandatory here!” said the head of the fund. “Especially when individual additional contributions are levied from 2015 onwards, contributors must have all the information available to check whether their fund is operating sustainably.” Statutory health insurance in Germany has an annual volume of around 200 billion euros.

The appendix to SBK's 2013 annual financial statements can be viewed at

https://www.sbk.org/ueber-uns/unsere-finanzen/geschaeftsbericht