Top networks are organizing themselves

18.04.2011 18:05

Network agency is intended to position medical networks nationwide

20 of the largest and most professional medical networks and health associations have joined forces with the association of practicing doctors in Germany, NAV-Virchow-Bund, in order to bundle their interests and competencies in a common network agency and to better position themselves at the federal level. For this purpose, a founding advisory board was formed that will organize the founding phase of the network agency and develop the joint venture. The committee will meet for a constituent meeting in May.

The first common political goal for the signatories is that medical networks and health associations receive the status of service providers in the currently emerging health care law. Professionally structured and organized medical networks must be able to be contractual partners with all rights and obligations in the interests of regional efficiency-oriented care, especially when concluding structural contracts or establishing medical care centers run by doctors.

In addition, the signatory networks welcome the possibility formulated in the first cornerstones of the Care Act to receive a regional care contract from the respective Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. This must be implemented in the system of the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and does not contribute to weakening it, but rather to strengthening it, in particular better regionalized care. Losing this option - as discussed in parts of politics - would set the network idea and regional integrated care back by years.

Another task of the network agency will be the exchange of network developments, services and products as well as contract and care concepts in order to ultimately act as a nationwide provider of regional integrated care as a contract and negotiating partner for statutory health insurance companies and private health insurance companies on an equal footing. The aim is for the network agency to appear as a competent and reliable partner, but also to improve the relationship of trust between service providers and payers in the medium and long term, which has been disrupted by health policy in recent years. The individual networks and health care associations remain completely independent.