BVA-Bilanz zum Strukturwandel Krankenhausversorgung
02.08.2017 17:48
The federal states had until July 31, 2017 to submit applications to the Federal Insurance Office for the payment of funding from the 500 million euro structural fund. The fund serves to support the federal states' projects to improve structures in hospital care. The reduction of excess capacity, the concentration of inpatient care capacities and their conversion into non-acute inpatient care facilities are supported. The prerequisite for funding is, among other things, that the applying country contributes at least 50 percent of the eligible costs to the project.
According to the Federal Insurance Office, the amount of funds for all 66 applications now available, 42 of which have been submitted since July 12, 2017, amounts to 483.81 million euros. With the exception of four federal states, all applicants have exhausted the share of funding they are entitled to according to the Königstein key for applications by July 31, 2017. Deducting the administrative costs incurred for the period up to the end of 2020, which are expected to amount to less than 1% of the fund volume, there are still funds of 11.49 million euros available for further funding (post-distribution amount). For this purpose, the federal states can submit new applications to the Federal Insurance Office in a post-distribution procedure after September 1, 2017, as the office announced.
“The funding from the Structural Funds makes a significant contribution to structural change in hospital care in order to meet the upcoming challenges caused by demographic and regional changes as well as medical and technical progress,” said the President of the Federal Insurance Office, Frank Plate. “The high number of applications and the fact that the vast majority of federal states have fully exhausted their funding share show that the structural funds represent an important motivation for investment in structural reforms.”
According to its own information, the Federal Insurance Office has so far made nine positive decisions and paid out funding totaling 113.27 million euros to the states.
In the course of the approvals by the Federal Insurance Office, seven concentration projects, a closure of a hospital without replacement and a conversion of a hospital into a non-acute inpatient care facility have been funded with funds from the hospital structural fund - differentiated according to the type of project. The projects outstanding for decision also predominantly concern concentration projects (around 64 %); In contrast, around 18 % of the projects are aimed at conversion and 18 % at closure without replacement.
According to the Federal Insurance Office, the funding process does not end with the payment, but is designed to last several years, during which the effect of the funding is evaluated and the appropriate use of the funds must be proven.