Health insurance companies no longer want to pay for corona tests - cities in the Ruhr area raise the alarm: "Throws us far back"

The corona virus tests of many cities in the Ruhr area are threatened with the end. Bochum, Dortmund and Co. sound the alarm. The reason: health insurance companies no longer want to pay.

• Cities accuse the health insurance companies of saving on the security of citizens.
• The reason for this is an announcement by the  Statutory Health Insurance Association of Westphalia-Lippe .
• There is sharp criticism for this from Dortmund , Bochum and Gelsenkirchen .

Dortmund - The cities in the Ruhr area are exciting. This is due to a communication from the  doctors' association Westfalen- Lippe (KVWL) , which states that public health departments of the cities can not account for them using the cash from Wednesday (May 20), the corona tests.

Cities like Dortmund now see their successful testing work in danger, according to information from RUHR24.de *. Because: Due to a high number of tests, the number of corona infected could be kept relatively low.

Health insurance companies: Doctors should do corona tests

Instead of the health offices, as requested by the health insurance companies in Westphalia-Lippe , only resident doctors should carry out the necessary tests. The participation of the health authorities is no longer necessary.

Should the regulation actually apply, the cities themselves would have to pay for the corona virus tests in the future - and no longer for the health insurance companies. The money would then have to be raised from tax money .

Dortmund: Health Department carried out many corona tests

Because resident doctors had too little protective equipment at the start of the corona pandemic , the health authorities in the Ruhr area began to carry out tests. In Dortmund, for example, there were diagnostic and treatment centers at the North Clinic and in the Signal Iduna Park , the BVB stadium .

The city of Dortmund also carried out tests in retirement homes . The measures stopped the spread of the corona pandemic surprisingly well *. That will no longer be possible in the future. Instead, a resident health insurance physician must personally commission an examination so that the costs can be borne by the health insurance companies.

Dortmund: OB Ullrich Sierau criticizes health insurance companies for corona tests

There is criticism from Dortmund at the highest level. Mayor Ullrich Sierau (SPD) calls on NRW Minister of Health Karl-Joseph Laumann (CDU) to " finally improve cooperation with the local level in combating the corona pandemic ."

Ullrich Sierau, Mayor of the City of Dortmund, cannot understand the step of the KVWL.

© Caroline Seidel / dpa

The city warns that the bureaucratic effort to get data on the infection will be "significantly larger" by the step of the KVWL . You need federal or state regulations to get the information. Dortmund Health Director Dr. Frank Renken : "From an epidemiological point of view, I think the decision of the KVWL is wrong. It throws us far back."

Corona tests: Gelsenkirchen criticizes health insurance announcement

There is great outrage in Gelsenkirchen as well . Most recently, 50 vehicles had been operated with the German Red Cross as mobile test stations throughout the city and a total of 2,434 tests were carried out. Low-threshold measures like this, and others, will soon no longer be possible. Affected people would have to go back to family practices.

A decision by the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians threatens the corona screening of the city of Bochum. The precautionary virus tests that are done, for example, in old people's homes should no longer be able to be billed. The current message: https://t.co/5tjHzWJBir #bochum pic.twitter.com/dWldLjMDh2

In Bochum , there are now fears that the number of people infected with the coronavirus could increase again. After all, the tests of symptomatic people were effective and a suitable means to contain the pandemic . 

Corona tests: Association of statutory health insurance physicians is calm

In the  doctors' association Westfalen-Lippe you see the thing expected relaxed. The situation with the corona virus in NRW (click here for the live ticker *) is currently different than at the beginning of the pandemic . "The infection numbers are declining and the doctor's offices are currently adequately equipped with protective clothing," the KVWL said in a press release. The corona tests could therefore be carried out again in the doctor's office.

The KVWL emphasizes that the health authorities could of course continue to carry out tests - only then they would have to be paid for by the public sector - and not by the health insurance companies .

Health insurance companies should also pay for corona tests for people without symptoms

Background: The "Second Law for the Protection of the Population in an Epidemic Situation of National Importance" passed last Friday (May 15) provides, among other things, that in future the costs for asymptomatic tests (i.e. on people who have no symptoms) ) are covered by the public health service from the statutory health insurance companies. 

In this case, the health insurance companies would face even more costs than before, where only tests on people with symptoms could be billed. This explains the withdrawal of the KVWL from the financing of the corona tests of the health authorities.

Video: How to diagnose a corona infection

However, the law only becomes effective through a corresponding ordinance regulating the provision, remuneration and billing of these services. This ordinance is currently being drawn up by the Federal Ministry of Health .

* RUHR24.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network.