German firms' red card at medical technology aids plans
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Access to medical technical aids in Germany is set to change dramatically under plans laid out in the draft health financing reform 2006, says industry association BVMed. Following its participation at a hearing last week on the proposed changes, the association is running an information campaign to highlight the prospective law's shortcomings in three areas in particular. On the first, the industry says "yes" to full patient choice of a range of quality local services and products provided under fully competitive conditions. And it says "no" to both restricted choice of aids and to competition based on price alone. These latter two opinions are printed on red cards (while the positive reaction is printed on green).