Abstracts by keywords: Health Expenditures
In medical practices, patients are increasingly being offered individual health services (IGeL). These services are to be paid for by the insured persons themselves, as they are outside the range of services provided by statutory health insurance. It is important for patients to be well informed about the benefits and possible harm of these medical measures before using an IGeL. It is also important that independent information on IGeL services is available. For this reason, the medical service of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds has launched the "IGeL Monitor" evaluation portal, in which evaluations of frequently offered IGeL services and further information on the IGeL services are published. In the article, the development of the IGeL market is presented, the information platform IGeL-Monitor and its evaluation results are presented and, based on this, some conclusions are drawn for dealing with IGeL services. Above all, the responsibility of the medical profession when selling IGeL services is emphasized and recommendations are given for patients on how to deal with IGeL offers.