Archive:
The first of two special reports prepared by the voluntary Scientific Advisory Board of the Federal Insurance Office (BVA) as the basis for a possible further development of the morbidity-oriented risk structure adjustment (M-RSA) was presented at a press conference at the BVA in Bonn.
06.12.2017
“The innovation fund is an investment that will also be really worthwhile from an economic point of view,” explained the Greifswald healthcare researcher Prof. Dr. med. Wolfgang Hoffmann – Congress President of the DKVF 2017 – in the cover interview in “Monitor Healthcare Research” (04/17). But when asked if he wanted to make a bet on it, he added: “I would do so if the pot was removed from the direct access of the cash registers and the G-BA.” A statement that Dr. Andreas Meusch, director of the TK Scientific Institute for Benefits and Efficiency in the Health Care System (WINEG), and representative of the board of directors for strategic health care issues at the Techniker Krankenkasse, does not want to leave it unchallenged. “Monitor Health Services Research” asked both of them to justify their positions.
06.12.2017
The Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the University of Regensburg was founded in 2008 with the appointment of Prof. Dr. Michael Leitzmann as chair and director. The institute, still headed by Leitzmann today, includes three professorships: the Chair of Medical Sociology—shared by Prof. Julika Loss and Prof. Christian Apfelbacher, which will be presented here—as well as the Chair of Genetic Epidemiology, held by Prof. Iris Heid, and the Chair of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, held by Leitzmann.
06.12.2017
The basic idea behind AMNOG in 2010 was to base pricing on the benefit of a drug. The legislator expected, but did not necessarily imply, that a price negotiated between statutory health insurance and a pharmaceutical company based on this benefit assessment would be economical [1]. However, since a decision and subsequent ruling by the Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Social Court [2] regarding a decision by the arbitration board, the discussion about the cost-effectiveness of reimbursement amounts and how they are determined has intensified. It is clear that there is no consensus among the stakeholders at any level as to when a reimbursement amount can be considered economical. The most concerning aspect of this is that, as a result, doctors and patients are uncertain about when a drug with a reimbursement amount can be used. Ensuring the supply of innovative therapies to patients was, however, one of the main motivations for AMNOG.
06.12.2017
The restructuring of acute and emergency care will be one of the central topics in health policy in the coming legislative period, a thesis supported by three facts. On the one hand, various approaches and existing solutions have been presented and discussed for a long time. Secondly, the Innovation Fund promotes the examination of this question in the area of health services research. And thirdly, the Advisory Council for the Assessment of Developments in the Healthcare System will present its expertise on the “Future of Emergency Care in Germany”, which was already discussed in a “workshop discussion”. This means that the demands for quick and sustainable solutions are becoming louder. In addition, the federal and state governments - but also the current media debate on the topic - are massively increasing the pressure to act in the coming legislative period. This marked the beginning of the political course for the realignment of acute and emergency care, but also the real ones, as the “IGiB on-call practice”, a model for outpatient acute and emergency care as a synthesis of medical on-call service and rescue center, shows.
06.12.2017
“Now the focus is finally on the patient.”1 (Federal Health Minister Hermann Gröhe, 2015). The patient has become socially acceptable: whether the federal government2, health insurance companies or the German Medical Association3 - all players in the health system assert that the microcosm of the care system should revolve around them in the future. The question remains whether a revolution is actually being sought. Because marginal sham or mini-reforms wouldn't do it. For too long, the German healthcare system has only served one purpose instead of the ominous “He who must not be named”: self-preservation. Putting the patient at the center would mean a complete overhaul and rearrangement of the existing system. Especially in the heads.
06.12.2017
„Die Nutzung der Chancen der Digitalisierung im Gesundheitssystem.“ Lediglich diese acht Wörter fanden sich Ende August im Sondierungsstatus des Arbeitskreises Arbeit, Rente, Gesundheit, Pflege, Soziales im Vorfeld der aktuellen Regierungsbildung zur Digitalisierung im Gesundheitswesen. Etwas wenig, wenn man die traurige Geschichte der Telematik-Infrastruktur in Deutschland bedenkt und das aktuelle 20-seitige Positionspapier der AOK Nordost betrachtet, das von der kommenden Regierungskoalition – wie immer diese aussehen mag – eine klare Strategie zum Ausbau der Digitalisierung im Gesundheitswesen fordert. Dazu gehört nach Meinung von AOK-Nordost-Vorstand Frank Michalak neben vielen anderen wichtigen Punkten nicht nur eine stärkere Souveränität der Patienten, sondern auch eine einheitliche Kommunikationsgrundlage für digitale Lösungen – sprich: eine elektronische Gesundheitsakte.
06.12.2017
Die Stadt Bielefeld gebe es nicht, ihre Existenz werde lediglich überzeugend vorgetäuscht, ist Gegenstand der satirischen „Bielefeld Verschwörung“, die ihren Ursprung um 1993 hat. Das hielt aber Doris Schaeffer nicht ab, nur vier Jahre später – 1997 – die Leitung des Instituts für Pflegewissenschaft an der Universität Bielefeld (IPW) sowie den Lehrstuhl für Versorgungsforschung und Pflegewissenschaft an der bereits 1994 gegründeten Fakultät für Gesundheitswissenschaften zu übernehmen. Diese Fakultät ist etwas ganz besonderes: Sie ist bis heute die einzige voll ausgebildete School of Public Health in Deutschland, besteht aus diversen Abteilungen oder Lehrstuhleinheiten, die interdisziplinär zusammengesetzt sind und eng miteinander kooperieren – und zudem fast alle unter einem Dach vereint sind, was den Bielefeldern den bezeichnenden Beinamen „Universität der kurzen Wege“ eintrug.
06.12.2017
A suitable platform for lively discussions on the topic of “Register”* should be the Forum Pro & Contra, which took place on the second day of the German Congress for Health Care Research. Chaired by Univ.-Prof. Dr. Prof. hc Dr. hc Edmund AM Neugebauer (Brandenburg Medical School) and Ulrike Elsner (Association of Replacement Insurance Funds), many actors from science, politics and health care practice came together to talk about the advantages and disadvantages as well as areas of application of RCTs and registers. Harsh counter words came from the only Contra participant: Prof. Dr. Jürgen diaperer, head of the Cologne IQWiG.
06.12.2017
On the occasion of World Psoriasis Day 2017 under the motto “Confess to the skin!”, not only current data and facts on psoriasis care in Germany were presented, but also under- and incorrect care as well as tasks facing society and politics were addressed. PsoNet Germany - a nationwide association of regional psoriasis networks and a platform for the exchange and training of dermatologists - as well as the German Psoriasis Association and the Institute for Health Care Research in Dermatology and Nursing Professions invited people to the harbor dome of the Hamburg Harbor Club, a venerable venue Dome room on the jetties, where the storm surge warning service used to work.