Clinic transparency: broaden the range of information available
27.09.2023 13:47
The AOK Federal Association welcomes the government's plan to improve transparency about hospital services for patients. On the occasion of today's hearing on the Hospital Transparency Act, the association is calling for additional, performance-related quality information to be added to the planned transparency directory.
In principle, the AOK expressly supports the government's plan, even if it considers the planned date for publishing the transparency directory to be “very ambitious”. “Patients urgently need more transparency about the quality of care in hospitals,” emphasizes Jürgen Malzahn. “There are still clinics that carry out complicated operations without the necessary routine and technical equipment.” From the AOK’s point of view, the portal can only be a truly valuable guide if service-related information relating to the quality of results of the individual clinics is supplemented . “The feedback from our insured persons on the AOK health navigator shows that they want recognized quality information that relates to their specific treatment wishes and is geared to the treatment results,” emphasizes Malzahn. The AOK Federal Association therefore suggests, among other things, that information on high-quality certificates is also provided in the portal.
In this context, the AOK expressly welcomes the free provision of data in machine-readable form provided for in the draft law, which was supplemented in the course of the legislative process. “This means that the data can also flow into the health insurance companies’ hospital search portals, which are already widely used,” says Malzahn. The AOK community has long been offering a portal called the Health Navigator, which provides information about, among other things, the number of cases at the respective hospital locations, center certifications and compliance with minimum operating volumes. “The AOK community is happy to incorporate the experience gained from processing and evaluating this data into the development of the new transparency directory,” emphasizes Malzahn.
There is criticism of some details of the draft law. The AOK believes that the regulation according to which the work of the Institute for Quality Assurance and Transparency in Health Care should have priority over all other tasks of the IQTIG should be reviewed again. In addition, the planned financing by statutory health insurance is rejected. “The fulfillment of a task by the BMG must also be carried out from its budget resources,” says the statement.