The Hospital Transparency Act obliges hospitals to provide the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) with the necessary information. The InEK supplies the data and evaluations and the Institute for Quality and Transparency in Healthcare (IQTIG) prepares the data for the directory.
The directory is to be published by the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) from May 2024, accompanying the hospital reform.
The transparency directory provides the population with this information:
Number of cases of services (differentiated by service groups), available medical and nursing staff, complication rates for selected procedures, assignment to care levels (levels) according to the number and type of minimum services to be provided, summarized by service groups.
The publication is clear, generally understandable, interactive and is continuously updated. In the future, further data can be included in the transparency directory. The data transmission for all hospital treatment cases will take place for the first time for the data year 2023.
The use of the transparency directory is evaluated by the BMG.
To improve the liquidity of hospitals, the law also provides for the following regulations:
Introduction of early refinancing of collective wage increases
Increase in the provisional care fee value: Once the Hospital Transparency Act comes into force, the provisional care fee will be increased from 230 euros to 250 euros.
Provisional compensation for shortfalls in revenue also for subsequent years: For many hospitals there is still no approved agreement on the nursing budget for 2020. These hospitals receive faster compensation for the care costs that have not yet been financed if it turns out that the hospital-specific care costs are underfunded with the nursing care fee value billed in previous years.
The publication of the clinical atlas by the BMG has no impact on the federal states’ hospital planning or hospital remuneration. The performance groups are named exclusively for publication in the Transparency Act.