The importance of privately insured people for the healthcare system has grown
23.05.2023 17:33
The importance of private health insurance (PKV) for doctors' practices and other healthcare service providers has increased. The additional sales of privately insured patients rose to 11.68 billion euros in 2021, around 150 million euros or 1.3 percent more than in the previous year. These additional sales arise because there are fewer budget restrictions and usually higher fees for the treatment of private patients than in statutory health insurance (GKV).
As in previous years, the largest part of the additional sales came from outpatient medical care at EUR 6.74 billion. Compared to 2020, additional sales here even increased by 5.7 percent. The increase is primarily a result of the slightly higher use of medical services compared to the first year of the pandemic. The additional PKV sales per doctor's practice averaged 58,849 euros (previous year: 55,416 euros). The importance of privately insured people for practicing doctors is also reflected in the fact that 20.4 percent of the total income of medical practices comes from those insured by private health insurance, with an insured share of 10.5 percent.
The additional turnover of privately insured people is probably even significantly higher than calculated. In practice, there are numerous invoices that privately insured people do not submit for reimbursement in order to benefit from premium refunds instead.
Another result: PKV service expenditure per insured person increased by 38.6 percent between 2011 and 2021. In a longer-term comparison, they therefore remain below the increase in statutory health insurance (+50.8 percent). The difference in performance expenditure development has recently increased significantly due to larger increases in expenditure in the statutory health insurance system. One reason for this is laws that increase service expenditure, such as the Appointment Service and Supply Act.
The WIP analysis “Increased sales and service expenditure of PKV insured persons – Annual Report 2023” can be found online at www.wip-pkv.de be downloaded.