Berlin – At the beginning of the 127th Doctors’ Day in Essen, employed doctors from MVZ together with non-medical, private financiers once again rejected unjustified accusations against their work. They call on the heads of the federal and state medical associations, as well as the delegates of the medical conference, to take action against denigrating the work of doctors employed in such MVZ structures or to refrain from doing so.
There has been a heated debate in the German healthcare system for years about how medical care centers (MVZ) deal with private non-physician financiers and what role they play. Critics accuse such MVZ groups of poorer and purely profit-oriented patient care. Unfortunately, despite several studies concluding that there is no evidence to support these claims.
Around 200 doctors wrote an open letter to the presidiums of the federal and state medical associations and to the delegates at the 127th Doctors’ Day in Essen against this disparagement of their own work. The signatories of the open letter object to “the blanket allegations and implied contempt for our work, which resonate in numerous statements regarding MVZ groups.”. They criticize the fact that every time there is talk of a threat to care or patient welfare in connection with MVZ groups, the impression is given that they are not fulfilling their work and obligations to patients.
In their letter, the doctors appeal to their professional representatives to take a stand against this form of disparagement and to prevent it, or where such statements are made, to stop them and return to a factual level of discussion that can be backed up with facts. Because a discussion about necessary structural reforms in outpatient care should not be conducted on the backs of the employed doctors of a certain form of care.
As early as October 2022, almost 95 medical managers from MVZ groups with private non-medical investors wrote an open letter to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the German Medical Association and called for the work of doctors to be protected from allegations of this kind from within their own ranks to take protection.
Nevertheless, the allegations of “the constant firing from the medical professional representation” ultimately reached top politics. The fact that Federal Health Minister Prof. Dr. Karl Lauterbach jumped on this train as a doctor is incomprehensible to the employed doctors.
After all, the Federal Ministry of Health stated in an answer to a small inquiry from the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in January of this year: “The medical management in the MVZ is legally assigned an express protective function to shield the medical treatment activity from outside influence. The BMG has no knowledge that medical directors in investor-run MVZs do not adequately fulfill this task.” (Bundestag printed paper 20/5166).
The signatories of the open letter also refer to this and turn against “the blanket allegations and implied disdain for our work, which resonate in numerous statements regarding MVZ groups.”. They criticize the fact that every time there is talk of a risk to care or patient welfare in connection with MVZ groups, the impression is given that they are not fulfilling their work and obligations to patients.
To the open letter:
The open letter to the presidents of the federal and state medical associations, as well as the delegates for the 127th Doctors’ Day can be found here:
The open letter will be Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers (BBMV) eV supports. The Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers eV is committed to a wide variety of providers and the best possible quality of care for patients in the outpatient healthcare sector. The BBMV members operate nationwide medical care centers (MVZ) and branch practices and thus contribute to local general practitioner and specialist care. In order to be able to make these investments in the quality of health care, they fall back on private, non-medical investors. More than 2,200 doctors are employed in the MVZ groups organized by the BBMV.