Archive:
Providing care for an increasing number of elderly and chronically ill people presents health insurance companies with major challenges. eHealth services offer the opportunity to ensure that people – regardless of their age or whether they live in the city or the countryside – continue to receive good care in the future and under the given circumstances.
31.03.2015
The draft Hospital Structure Act (KHSG), intended to improve the quality of treatment and the security of care in hospitals, has been generally welcomed, but many are calling for improvements. The law, which is scheduled to come into force on January 1, 2016, is meant to implement certain key points presented by the federal-state working group on hospital reform on December 5, 2014, after more than six months of deliberations. At the public hearing of the Health Committee in September, institutions, associations, and organizations issued their statements.
31.03.2015
Nationwide, over 3.7 million insured individuals (5 percent of all those with statutory health insurance) and 16,000 general practitioners participate in the primary care physician-centered care (PCC) program – and this number is rising. Over a third of the participating patients are insured with AOK Baden-Württemberg, which has been offering PCC for seven years. INSIGHT Health has access to billing data from these PCC participants, enabling an in-depth analysis of the care model from the perspective of outpatient drug supply.
31.03.2015
Since the publication of the coalition agreement, the Innovation Fund has been one of the most discussed topics in healthcare. Now, at an event hosted by the Federal Association of Managed Care, the nonpartisan G-BA Chairman, Professor Josef Hecken, provided an insight into the current implementation status: Hecken aims to modernize healthcare structures and processes through relatively large-scale projects involving at least one health insurance company. The application process will be a single-stage process for innovative forms of care and a two-stage process for healthcare research projects. The first funding announcement is planned for December.
31.03.2015
Dr. Martin Danner, Federal Managing Director of the German Association of Self-Help Groups (BAG Selbsthilfe) since 2008 and spokesperson for the Coordination Committee of Patient Representation of the German Disability Council (DBR) and the BAG Selbsthilfe within the Federal Joint Committee, vehemently advocates for greater patient participation at all levels in an interview with MVF and calls for a paradigm shift from policymakers. Ultimately, Danner argues, policymakers must commit to finally "structurally strengthening patients as equal actors within the system" so that the system can transform from a recipient of services to an active participant, because in an era of pure competition, patient interests can only be represented by patients themselves.
31.03.2015
Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) form the central foundation for demonstrating the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals. However, this study design reaches its limits with certain research questions and drug classes, particularly in health services research and drug evaluation. A joint workshop of the German Association of Managed Care (BMC), the German Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry (BPI), and the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa) aimed to clarify how RCTs can be meaningfully supplemented by insights generated through alternative study designs. The workshop took place in mid-October at the SRH University in Berlin.
31.03.2015
Chaired by Univ.-Prof. em. Dr. Prof. hc Edmund AM Neugebauer (DNVF) and Dr. Christoph Veit (IQTiG) spoke to Prof. Dr. Joachim Szecsenyi (AQUA), who presented the developments in legal quality assurance over the last five years and the current status in 2015, and Prof. Dr. Max Geraedts (University of Witten/Herdecke), who introduced the perspective of health services research (and received opposition from the former). On the other hand, Dr. Regina Klakow-Franck (G-BA), who spoke on the topic of “Legal quality assurance within the framework of the new version of SGB V 137a” and Prof. Dr. Matthias Schrappe (Cologne), who spoke about “Legal quality assurance: opportunities for the further development of the healthcare system?”
31.03.2015
At the so-called marketplace of the 14th German Congress for Health Services Research (DKVF), where service providers and data providers in the field of health services research and management could present themselves, two congress participants often stood alone and isolated. While they were certainly adept at handling data, health services researchers all too often say that obtaining data from these civil servants is nearly impossible. Dr. Jochen Dreß and Dirk Hellthaler from the German Institute for Medical Documentation and Information (DIMDI) in Cologne addressed this perhaps overly hasty and simplistic prejudice in an interview with "Monitor Health Services Research." DIMDI is part of the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) and operates the "Health Services Data Information System" on its behalf, in accordance with the Data Transparency Act.
31.03.2015
The example of back pain shows that sensible medicine is not the norm in a superlative healthcare system: Doctors take too many X-rays for acute pain, but too rarely use combined, activating treatment programs when the pain becomes chronic. Over-, under- or incorrect medical care creates unnecessary suffering and unnecessary costs. The “Together Smart Decisions (GKE)” initiative of the AWMF (Association of Scientific Medical Societies eV) and its currently 171 member societies is intended to protect against this.
31.03.2015
The severe measles outbreak in 2015 brought the supply of vaccines in Germany to the forefront of public attention. Since the vaccination behavior of the population in Germany is not comprehensively documented, an assessment of the supply situation is limited. An analysis of statutory health insurance (SHI) vaccine prescriptions can contribute to understanding the current market situation and regional differences in supply.