Sickness funds hamper innovation, claim doctors
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
"The statutory health insurers are not prepared to finance new treatments. They want doctors to finance these from their own pocket and that is wholly unacceptable," says Dr Manfred Richter-Reichhelm, principal chairman of the federal association of statutory healthcare physicians (KBV). Speaking after a meeting between the sickness funds and his association, he pointed out that within the next three years the financial volume of innovative procedures would reach DM1.5 billion. It was for this reason that Dr Richter-Reichhelm believed that the sickness funds must change their hostile attitude towards their insured clients.