AOK on hospital reform: No compromises in terms of quality in the last few meters
11.07.2023 14:17
Regarding the fundamental agreement between the federal and state governments on key points for hospital reform, the CEO of the AOK Federal Association, Dr. Carola Reimann:
“It is good that the federal and state governments have fundamentally agreed on hospital reform. Given the increasing shortage of skilled workers and the obvious quality problems, we need this reform. What is important, however, is that it actually brings about a quality-oriented concentration of hospital services. What matters here is how the law will be specifically designed in the further process. The end result must be a reform that will actually advance inpatient care. There is a risk that too many compromises will be made in terms of quality, which will come at the expense of the patients.
For us, the introduction of performance groups is the central element of the reform. However, they should be specified at the federal level - without lazy compromises at the expense of quality and patient safety. It is also important that financing and planning go hand in hand in the future. The clinics need a reliable financial perspective because nobody wants a cold structural change. The planned introduction of reserve financing is therefore necessary.
However, reserve financing runs the risk of not really making the leap away from fixing flat rates per case. Significant improvements need to be made here. Only with a clear population reference and flat rates that are paid out in advance and independently of the invoice for the individual case can the planning security of the clinics and the needs-oriented financing be structurally improved.