Original article
According to Saxon Health Minister Petra Köpping, the draft bill for the Saxon Hospital Act (SächsKHG), which has recently been available and has been released for hearing, is intended to ensure that “every patient in every region is well cared for”. According to Köpping, the aim is to have an efficient, efficient and attractive hospital landscape in the Free State of Saxony that is well networked with other service providers and that offers a high quality of care for patients in 2030 and beyond, which is what the new Saxon Hospital Act is intended to achieve , in force since September 1, 1993 and most recently amended by Article 18 of the Law of April 26, 2018, which establishes the legal framework.
21.09.2022
The Thuringian state associations of statutory health insurance funds and substitute health insurance funds, the Thuringian State Hospital Association, the Thuringian Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, and the Thuringian State Medical Association have jointly presented their "Vision 2030 for Medical Care in Thuringia" to Heike Werner, the Thuringian Minister for Labor, Social Affairs, Health, Women, and Family. This vision outlines how the future healthcare landscape can develop from the authors' perspective. In addition to high-quality care, it includes efficient healthcare structures, comprehensive and needs-based care, and attractive working conditions. Furthermore, the vision outlines the necessary criteria and provides clear guidance on how to make Thuringia's healthcare landscape future-proof, for which, in the authors' opinion, the legal framework must be established. All decision-makers are called upon to support the implementation of this vision through the corresponding legislation at the state and federal levels.
21.09.2022
„Krankenhäuser umwandeln statt schließen: Voraussetzungen für neue Gestaltungsoptionen schaffen“, nennt die Münch-Stiftung ihre aktuelle Studie, die vom Institute for Health Care Business GmbH und der Oberender AG erarbeitet wurde. Die Auftragsarbeit finanziert und publiziert die Stiftung als Leitfaden, der konkrete Handlungsbedarfe und Lösungsansätze zum Abbau von Hürden darlegt, die es den Gesetzgebern im Bund sowie in den Ländern ermöglichen soll, zielgerichtet die zukunftssichere Gestaltung der Gesundheitsversorgung voranzutreiben.
21.09.2022
In February 2022, the G-BA's Innovation Committee gave the green light: It is recommended that the health kiosk in Hamburg's Billstedt and Horn districts be included in regular care. Since then, attention has been growing around the low-threshold case management model – politically and in the media. At the end of August, Federal Health Minister Prof. Karl Lauterbach presented key points for the nationwide development of health kiosks. But who can actually set up a health kiosk? Who should particularly benefit from this? How should employees be qualified? And is the concept also suitable for rural areas? Dr. Oliver Gröne, deputy chairman of the board, and Anja Klose, Project & Healthcare Manager at OptiMedis, gave initial answers in the company's own newsletter.
21.09.2022
“From project funding to innovation infrastructure” is what the Federal Association of Managed Care e. V. its current position paper on the further development of the Innovation Fund (IF). Six years after its launch, it is time to fundamentally further develop the innovation fund in order to make better use of the associated opportunities than before. Instead of the current project funding, the BMC advocates an innovation infrastructure that sustainably develops the health system. To do this, politicians must clearly state which goals the fund should achieve - in particular, the focus must be on actually improving standard care - and create practical conditions for testing innovations.
21.09.2022
The collective agreement regulations for statutory health insurance were supplemented in 2019 to include second opinion procedures. If an insured person is planning to have an operation on the palatine or pharyngeal tonsils (tonsillectomy, tonsillotomy), a hysterectomy, a joint endoscopy of the shoulder (shoulder arthroscopy), an implantation of a knee endoprosthesis, an amputation for diabetic foot syndrome or an operation on the spine , then in addition to the doctor who gave the indication (first opinion), you can also ask a second doctor for medical advice (§ 27b SGB V; Federal Joint Committee 2022). In issue 03/2022 of the “Monitor Healthcare Research” it was already possible to analyze billing data and catchment areas for selected indications in the Hesse health insurance area. The presumed influences and incentives on service provision and utilization were identified (Hartweg/Suk 2022). But in addition to these collective agreement offers, many health insurance companies have now also established their own second opinion procedures. These second opinion procedures are the focus of this article.
21.09.2022
The abolition of the supplementary federal subsidy in 2023, which will provide an additional 14 billion euros in the coffers of statutory health insurance (GKV) in 2022 (Bundestag 2021), thus increasing the total amount to 28.5 billion euros, gave rise to a debate about the impending funding gap for statutory health insurance in 2023. The question therefore arises as to which measures are suitable to enable targeted expenditure control in the statutory health insurance. The federal government's draft law for the financial stabilization of statutory health insurance (Federal Ministry of Health 2022) lists a number of measures that are intended to realize efficiency reserves without benefit cuts amounting to around 3 billion euros for 2023. For example, the sales threshold for drugs to treat a rare disease (orphan drugs) for the benefit assessment is to be reduced to 20 million euros.
21.09.2022
There are now some results reports and transfer resolutions that reveal a fundamental problem with the existing transfer regime: methodological problems and the sometimes very specific project design limit the generalizability of the results (BT-Drs. 20/1361, p. 152 ff.). As a result, it is often not possible to make sound transfer recommendations. Since more projects are continually ending and the current federal government also plans in its coalition agreement to perpetuate the innovation fund and specify a more binding path for the project transfer into standard provision (SPD; Alliance90/The Greens; FDP 2021, p. 86 f.), one Development of relevant solutions is essential. After first looking at the problem in more detail below, this article proposes a solution based on common scientific procedures: bringing together findings from related projects through systematic reviews as an extraordinary and permanent thematic focus. Furthermore, this would also take up the suggestion identified in the Prognos report to “[…] synthesize and jointly evaluate the results within selected subject areas in order to create further evidence for certain innovative forms of care (e.g. pilotage projects) on this basis to disseminate implementation-relevant knowledge” (BT-Drs. 20/1361, p. 208).
21.09.2022
According to estimates, around 260,000 people in Germany are affected by a stroke every year [1]. Numerous underlying diseases can result in the spastic syndrome (SMD; synonymous use: spastic movement disorder, spasticity, spasticity). The manifestation of the spastic syndrome is possible at different times in the course of the respective underlying disease [2,3]. In addition to multiple sclerosis, a craniocerebral trauma, a spinal cord lesion or cerebral palsy, stroke is one of the most common and causative underlying diseases [4]. Stroke survivors have almost a 50% chance of developing spasticity one to three months later [5,6]. Spastic movement disorders are damage to the central nervous system and the central nervous sensorimotor cell and pathway systems (“spastic movement disorder”, SMD). The disease is characterized by a massive limitation of joint mobility and therefore overall mobility, as well as involuntary activation of muscles [7]. In Germany, 250,000 people are probably affected and suffer from the disease and the associated reductions in quality of life [8].
21.09.2022
8. Ad hoc statement on the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2/Covid-19 - see OnlineFirst