Innovation in European healthcare – what can Sweden learn? - LIF

Central Changes in the German healthcare System
2011/12 II
• The law on the reform of the SHI care structure (GKV-
Versorgungsstrukturgesetz) became effective in the beginning of 2012
• Most important new regulations:
– Insuring outpatient physician care in densely populated regions by better reimbursement and better
working conditions
– Regionalization of the planning process for SHI doctors
– Regional associations of SHI doctors (Kassenärztliche Vereinigungen) get the right to decide about
the distribution of SHI reimbursement between the SHI doctors in the region
– Only SHI outpatient physicians and hospitals have the right to found and run Medical Treatment
Centers (Medizinische Versorgungszentren MVZ)
– Highly specialized outpatient care (e.g. outpatient cancer treatment) can be carried out by
specialized outpatient physicians and hospitals with specialized departments
– Minor reform of the Federal Joint Committee (Gemeinsamer Bundesausschuss G-BA)
– The Federal Joint Committee has now the possibility of testing examination and treatment methods
whose benefit has not yet been sufficiently proved, but which show potential as a treatment
alternative. A request can be submitted by
• the manufacturer of a medical product whose use significantly depends on the application of a new
examination or treatment method
• Companies that are not providers of a new method, but that have an economic interest in its provision by the
statutory health insurance providers
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