Signal to politicians and health insurance companies – HEK is abolishing dental practice fees

09.07.2012 10:35

The federal chairman of the NAV-Virchow-Bund welcomes the decision of the board of directors of the Hanseatic Health Insurance Fund (HEK) to refund its insured persons the practice fee for dental visits. “The beginning has been made. The HEK shows where the path needs to go,” praises Dr. Dirk Heinrich. The decision must now send a signal to politicians and health insurance companies that the ten-euro levy is outdated and should be abolished immediately, demands Heinrich.

Many health insurance companies had previously responded to Federal Health Minister Daniel Bahr's repeated warnings to let insured people share in the billion-dollar surplus with expanded insurance benefits. “Additional spa offers and free fitness courses are purely marketing measures that do not help patients. The practice fee annoys everyone and discourages poor people from visiting the doctor.” Therefore, according to the federal chairman of the Association of Resident Doctors in Germany, abolishing the fee is the most sensible way to return the excess billions to the insured.

The Hanseatic Health Insurance Fund, which insures around 400,000 patients, is the first statutory health insurance company to abolish additional payments. As a prerequisite for the reimbursement of the fee, according to the decision of the HEK administrative board, HEK members must have their teeth examined at least once a year as part of a bonus program. The maximum amount that can be reimbursed is 40 euros per year. The fund says it will forego around 2.5 million euros in income. The regulation comes into force retroactively from January 1, 2012.

Due to the legal situation, it is currently not possible to simply waive the fee collection. The bureaucratically complex reimbursement process is the only way to exempt patients from the fee. Heinrich: “It’s a wave with the fence post. Politicians must finally act and relieve patients and doctors.”

The NAV-Virchow-Bund is the only free medical association that exclusively represents the interests of all doctors in all specialties who are willing to establish themselves, in private practice and on an outpatient basis.