As of: February 22, 2024, 9:31 a.m
By: Andreas Schmid
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Karl Lauterbach during a hospital visit in September 2022. The minister is planning to reform hospitals.
© picture alliance/dpa |
Christophe Gateau//IMAGO/Rainer Weisflog (montage)
The Federal Council delayed Karl Lauterbach's hospital reform.
To date, there has been no agreement on a partial law.
Now the dispute seems to have been settled.
Update from February 21st, 8:55 p.m
.: An agreement has been reached in the dispute over more transparency in clinic treatments.
In the mediation committee, representatives of the Bundestag and Bundesrat came to an agreement on Wednesday evening in Berlin.
Now nothing stands in the way of a decision being made in the Federal Council, said Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD).
The clinics should also receive a “transformation fund” with a view to a planned major hospital reform, for which 50 billion euros are planned for ten years from 2025.
The federal and state governments should each share half the sum.
The Federal Council initially stopped the transparency law passed by the Bundestag in November (see initial report).
The law also includes provisions for billions in additional liquidity for the clinics.
The opposition criticizes this “hospital political ghost ride”.
Lauterbach's hospital transparency law must go to the mediation committee
First report from February 21st, 3 p.m
.: Karl Lauterbach has big plans.
The Minister of Health wants to completely overhaul the German hospital system.
Since the start of the coalition, he has been working on his hospital reform, which consists of several partial laws.
However, the states are slowing down on one of them.
In addition to billions in aid for the clinics, Lauterbach wants to set up a “transparency directory”: Patients should receive information online about how good a clinic in their area is, i.e. how much experience a clinic has with certain services or how high the complication rate is.
The headwind for this hospital transparency law is great.
The project must go to the mediation committee on Wednesday.
Laws passed by the Bundestag that do not find a majority in the Bundesrat end up in this committee.
The hospital transparency law was passed by a majority in the Bundestag in autumn 2023, but the Federal Council intervened.
Actually, the federal draft bill does not require approval;
However, his referral to the Mediation Committee delays its entry into force.
The federal states represented in the Federal Council criticized, among other things, additional bureaucratic burdens and excessive federal intervention in state competencies.
The Union-led federal states in particular are skeptical.
The biggest criticism comes from Bavaria.
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“Lauterbach’s draft does not ensure transparency, but rather unnecessary confusion.”
One day before the meeting, Bavaria's Health Minister Judith Gerlach (CSU) called on the federal government to give in.
Gerlach said on Tuesday in Munich: “Bavaria is also in favor of more transparency - but it was right that the states stopped Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach's draft.
Because the law urgently needs to be improved.
Lauterbach’s draft does not ensure transparency, but rather unnecessary confusion.”
Gerlach also warned of a “wave of bankruptcies” due to the difficult situation of German hospitals.
In a joint Federal Council initiative with other states, the Free State is calling for an emergency aid program for hospitals worth more than five billion euros.
The CSU politician names one of the main reasons for the dispute between the federal and state governments: money.
“The Transparency Act does not provide any additional funds, but rather only advances payments that hospitals are already entitled to,” said the minister when asked by our editorial team.
“Lauterbach should now finally stop his tactics and continue working constructively with the states on the details of the hospital reform.”
Hospital association: “Appeal to states not to agree to the transparency law”
Bavaria receives support from the German Hospital Association.
Before the discussions in the mediation committee of the Bundesrat and Bundestag on Wednesday, DKG boss Gerald Gaß called on the states to reject the hospital transparency law.
“I appeal to the states not to agree to the transparency law if Lauterbach continues to deny the necessary inflation compensation,” Gaß told the
Rheinische Post
.
Gaß also referred to the financial situation of German clinics and warned of dozens of bankruptcies.
“If the clinics do not quickly receive inflation compensation from the federal government, 80 clinics could go bankrupt this year, according to our forecast.
This is a disorderly death that is at the expense of employees and patients.” Minister Lauterbach also likes to refer to hospital deaths and said, for example: “If we do not get this law enforced, then hospital deaths in Germany will be difficult to prevent in large parts.”
The statutory health insurance companies, on the other hand, welcome the law in essence: “With this law there is a real opportunity to get more transparency and clarity in hospital care for the benefit of patients,” says Florian Lanz, spokesman for the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, to
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
Nevertheless, Lanz is also skeptical.
“However, the concern remains that at the end of the mediation committee more money will simply be distributed to all hospitals with a watering can and nothing will change in terms of the outdated and expensive structures and the quality of care.
So we look forward to the mediation committee on Wednesday with hope and fear.” The committee will meet on Wednesday evening for deliberations.