Gesundheitsreform: Kassenärzte sagen längere Termin-Wartezeiten voraus
Ärzte sollen künftig eine feste Zahl freier Termine melden, bislang konnten sie den Umfang selbst bestimmen. Warum die Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung darin keinen Weg zu schnelleren Terminen sieht.
Kassenärzte predict longer waiting times for appointments from next year onwards, according to the Kassenärztlichen Bundesvereinigung (KBV). Speaking to Bild newspaper, KBV president Andreas Gassen highlighted that the federal government has cut funding for outpatient care, leading to the removal of over 50 million outpatient appointments.
Gassen explained that by requiring practices to declare a fixed number of available appointments, these clinics will no longer have capacity for patients, stating, "If a fixed contingent of appointments is set and blocked in practices, they are no longer available to patients within these practices." He emphasized that the KBV has repeatedly warned about this issue, adding, "Only when more funding for outpatient care is available can there be more appointments.
These are straightforward economic dependencies." The KBV had previously criticized the extended 'appointment declaration obligation' as part of the recent emergency care reform, which now obliges contract doctors to report a specific quantity of appointments to the appointment service. The KBV argues that this change, coupled with the removal of extra-budgetary payments for additional appointments, will exacerbate the appointment backlog.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
