Archive:
The current decisions on health policy also affect family doctor-centered care (HZV). The GKV Financing Act provides for grandfathering of contracts that have already been concluded until the end of June 2014 (“Ärzte Zeitung” 2010). However, strict legal requirements apply to contracts that were concluded after the statutory deadline: Proof of economic viability must be provided “ex ante” for additional expenditure compared to the standard supply. In particular, the health insurance companies that adhered to the legal obligation to introduce the HZV and concluded contracts early on pay higher fees to the participating doctors.
05.10.2012
On January 1, 2010, the Pharmaceutical Market Reorganization Act (AMNOG) came into force and with it a paradigm shift in the German pharmaceutical market. While the USA and Germany were previously the only countries in the world in which the manufacturers of new patent-protected pharmaceutical preparations were able to freely determine their prices (at least in principle), the USA now remains the only “member” in this exclusive club. Any plans by the Obama administration to change this for the USA are likely to have become unrealizable for the foreseeable future given the new majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives
05.10.2012
Pain is one of the most expensive challenges for the healthcare system and is a heavy burden for affected patients and their relatives. At the 6th Aachen workshop, to which Grünenthal invited at the beginning of December 2010, the focus was on the topic “Future of Pain Therapy”. Experts from various disciplines shed light on the care situation for patients with severe pain in Germany. Conclusion: The therapeutic care of chronic pain patients is still characterized by undersupply. That's why a demand from the health economist Prof. Dr. med. Dipl-Kfm. Rainer Riedel: “In order to improve the care situation for patients, we first have to raise money.”
05.10.2012
Orphan drugs are medicinal products used for the medicinal treatment of rare diseases. The AMNOG (German Act on the Treatment of Rare Diseases) has brought them back into the spotlight of health policy debates, as they are exempt from an early benefit assessment (Section 35a of the German Social Code, Book V). Thus, proof of (additional) benefit only needs to be provided if the statutory health insurance (SHI) revenue of an orphan drug exceeds €50 million in a single year. But how often is this revenue threshold actually exceeded? According to data from INSIGHT Health, all orphan drugs combined generated annual revenue of just under €1 billion.
05.10.2012
Als „wichtige Diskussionsgrundlage für die weitere Arbeit im Nationalen Krebsplan“ bezeichnete Staatssekretär Stefan Kapferer das eben vorgelegte Gutachten zur „Sicherstellung einer effizienten Arzneimittelversorgung in der Onkologie“. Er sei sich, so der Staatssekretär, sicher, dass das unter der fachlichen Leitung von Prof. Dr. Gerd Glaeske erstellte Gutachten wichtige Impulse für die weitere Ausgestaltung der onkologischen Arzneimittelversorgung geben werde. In dem Gutachten, an dem die Professoren Höffken, Ludwig, Schrappe, Weißbach und Wille (siehe auch aktuelles Titelinterview) sowie die wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin Maike Rehrmann mitwirkten, wird der „Lebenszyklus“ eines Krebsmedikaments von der Entwicklung über die Zulassung bis hin zur Versorgung dargestellt und unter medizinischen, arzneimittelrechtlichen, sozialrechtlichen und ökonomischen Aspekten beleuchtet.
05.10.2012
A lot has happened in healthcare in recent years. The question of quality is becoming increasingly important. The legal conditions for better cooperation between different disciplines have been increasingly expanded. A growing number of actors have used the legal opportunities for increased cooperation, in structured treatment programs as well as in integrated care projects or in MVZs. Of course, these projects often provide for an evaluation that increases knowledge about the benefits and minor effects of cooperation. Nevertheless, health services research has not yet sufficiently penetrated the public consciousness and certainly not into decisions about the choice of a form of care. It therefore makes sense to think about increasing the role of health services research
05.10.2012
Individual lifestyles, living conditions, coping potential, adequate medical and social care, prevention and rehabilitation influence both the state of health, quality of life and well-being in old age as well as the costs incurred in the medical and nursing sectors. Geriatric patients have a higher risk of hospitalization and usually suffer not only from a chronic illness, but from other (co-)morbidities. Cross-indication, preventative geriatric case management is a promising approach to improving the quality of life and self-management skills of those affected and at the same time reducing hospital expenses.
05.10.2012
As of January 1, 2009, the risk structure equalization (RSA) in statutory health insurance was further developed into a morbidity-oriented RSA for 80 serious or cost-intensive chronic diseases (Göpffarth 2009). Since 2003, however, there has been a preliminary stage of morbidity orientation in the form of the coupling of structured treatment programs (also disease management programs - DMP) to the RSA (Busse 2004, Stock et al. 2006). The background was a discussion about the control effect of the (old) risk structure compensation. Among other things, it was criticized that health insurance companies have no (financial) incentives to implement structured treatment programs under the given conditions. If they implemented appropriate programs, the argument goes, they would become attractive to chronically ill people, who would then increasingly switch to health insurance. However, since chronic illnesses are not taken into account in the RSA, these switches would result in negative contribution margins and would thus lead to the financial ruin of the health insurance company.
05.10.2012
21,34 % beträgt das Einsparpotenzial im deutschen Gesundheitswesen - was halten Sie davon?“ Zu dieser „Meldung“ - absolut frei erfunden und „realistisch gewürfelt“ - wurden etliche Fachexperten aus der Gesundheitsversorgung, aus Verbänden und Politik befragt: Immerhin zwölf haben geantwortet, indes wohlwissend, dass es sich um eine „Ente“ handelt: Denn weder gibt es ein Forschungsnetzwerk Gesundheitsökonomie, und schon gar nicht ein pseudogenaues Studienergebnis mit zwei Dezimalstellen.
05.10.2012
„In dieser spectrumK-Tagung wird es darum gehen, die Brücke zwischen Versorgungkonzepten und Kundenmanagement zu schlagen“, begrüßten Joachim Bentz und Dr. Dirk Sunder Plaßmann, Geschäftsführer der spectrumK Gesellschaft für Versorgungsmanagement mbH, ihre 180 Gäste zur vierten Tagung rund um das Versorgungsmanagement. Spezialwissen aus Versorgungsmanagement und Praxis wurde vermittelt und auch die Position der Selbstverwaltung sowie der Politik vermittelt, die Dr. Rolf Koschorrek, Obmann der CDU/CSU-Fraktion im Gesundheitsausschuss des Deutschen Bundestags, vertrat. Der verteidigte das AMNOG aus politisch-ökonomischer Sicht.