Archive:
The Federal Managed Care Association, founded in 1997, looks back on fifteen years; a decade and a half in which the world, in which societies, including the Federal German one, have changed. But: Has the German healthcare system also changed and if so, in what form and in what direction? “Monitor Health Services Research” spoke about this with Prof. Dr. oec. Volker E. Amelung, Professorship for International Health Systems Research, Hannover Medical School and since 2007 Chairman of the Board of the BMC, whose approximately 160 members represent the entire range of players in the German healthcare system - health insurance companies and insurers, hospitals, medical bodies, medical professions, pharmacies, pharmaceuticals and medical technology industry, universities, consulting and service companies, IT providers and other institutions and who recently presented a 6-point paper “Health Policy Impulses 2013” calling for extensive structural changes in the healthcare system.
28.05.2013
The DAK - Unternehmens Leben, which has been chaired by Prof. Dr. since 2003 - first on the board - then since 2005 as chairman of the DAK board. hc Herbert Rebscher and BKK Gesundheit merged more than a year ago and have since operated under the name DAK-Gesundheit. With its 6.6 million members, the new company is the third largest German health insurance company, which Rebscher leads as CEO. As an officer, Rebscher studied economics and organizational sciences at the University of the Bundeswehr with a focus on economic and social policy as well as health economics and a focus on medical ethics. Since August 2005 he has also been an honorary professor of health policy and health economics at the University of Bayreuth.
28.05.2013
Dipl.-Social Dr. rer. pole. As managing director, Wolfgang Klitzsch headed the “General Questions of Health, Social and Professional Policy” department of the North Rhine Medical Association from 1992 to December 2013, for which he will continue to advise after 22 years in office. He was honorary chairman of the board of the European Public Health Center, North Rhine-Westphalia (EPHZ) and is also an honorary board member of the Federal Association of Managed Care eV (BMC). He gave this contribution as a speech at the BMC's last annual reception in Berlin.
28.05.2013
The Techniker Krankenkasse has concluded a new contract model “to promote high-quality and economical drug supply with biologics for TK patients” with the Professional Association of German Rheumatologists (BDRh). The contractual partners have several goals in focus, which – according to Tim Steimle in the MVF interview – “are pursued equally on one level”. Doctors and TK act as partners in this contract.
28.05.2013
With an international survey, Prof. Dr. Axel Mühlbacher (Neubrandenburg University, IGM Institute of Health Economics and Medical Management and co-founder of the Society for Empirical Consulting mbH) and member of the scientific advisory board of “Monitor Healthcare Research”) will shed more light on the darkness of patient participation. He wrote to 126 international organizations/institutions in early November last year to obtain more information about patient and citizen participation in the countries, but only 17 of the organizations contacted responded to his questions. But at least there is a trend emerging: patient preferences are a big issue, even if the type of involvement varies greatly.
28.05.2013
Discount contracts are intended to help reduce the cost of medication for those insured by statutory health insurance and thus reduce the burden on the solidarity-funded health system in Germany. There is always debate about the extent to which discount agreements have an influence on market concentration. An analysis carried out by INSIGHT Health shows different market concentrations over time depending on how the active ingredient market is viewed. It cannot be conclusively answered whether these differences are primarily due to discount agreements. In the generic active ingredient markets examined, there has clearly been an increase in market concentration since the introduction of the discount agreements.
28.05.2013
Almost 40 years of health care reforms are behind us. Past governments have primarily tried to keep costs within limits and have focused primarily on the pharmaceutical sector, an area that is relatively easy to regulate. Perhaps that is why our supply structures urgently need innovations whose purpose is not limited to regulation, but rather to control. “If you want good care, you have to know where the deficits are in the system and which measures to improve it promise success,” says Prof. Dr. Edmund AM Neugebauer (IFOM Institute) said at the MVF congress “Innovation 2014 - Ways out of the innovation standstill - Concepts - Evaluation - Best practices”, which not only describes the status after almost 40 years of health reforms, but also approaches to solutions with all their opportunities and difficulties will show how health care in Germany can be given new impetus, how the innovation culture can be advanced and the (perceived or actual?) innovation backlog can be resolved.
28.05.2013
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Hoffmann, MPH has been managing director of the Institute for Community Medicine since 2007 and has held the W3 professorship for population-related health care epidemiology and community health at Greifswald University Medicine since December 2011. He also heads the Health Care Epidemiology and Community Health department. As a representative of the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi) in the DNVF, he conducts research in the areas of innovative care concepts, the epidemiology of chronic diseases, population-related intervention and prevention, fights with verve for federated data and quality management and is a member of the scientific advisory board of “Monitor Health Care Research”. (MVF).
28.05.2013
Dr. med. Wolfgang Abenhardt has been a practicing internist and oncology doctor at the MOP in Elisenhof since 1988 with a license for all internal medicine (focus on oncology) and nuclear medicine. Membership in DKG/AIO/NIO/BNHO/DGHO/BDI, DGN. Abenhardt is board member of the Federal Association of Outpatient Specialist Medical Care (BV ASV)
28.05.2013
“Better health and higher work productivity through sustainable changes in patient behavior” is the title of a current meta-analysis by Booz & Co and the Bertelsmann Foundation, which aims to prove the “effects of increased therapy adherence”. In this analysis, the authors - Peter Behner, Ab Klink and Sander Visser (Booz) as well as Jan Böcken and Stefan Etgeton (Bertelsmann Foundation) used data from five selected chronic diseases, but in this review they tried not only to examine the direct ones, but above all the economic ones to record costs. In the interview, Peter Behner (Managing Director in the Berlin office of Booz & Company and Head of the European Health Practice), Ab Klink (Senior Executive Advisor of the Health Practice of Booz & Company Amsterdam, previously Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport in the Netherlands) and Sander Visser (member of the management board of Booz & Company Amsterdam) explains their motivations, the learnings and the next possible steps to address adherence (see also MA&HP 4/13 and Pharma Relations 7/13).