The good news for cancer patients with otherwise hardly treatable tumors and the university hospital in Marburg is that health insurance companies will continue to pay for particle therapy in the future, from which the former Prime Minister of Hesse, Volker Bouffier (CDU), among others, has benefited. From the hospital’s point of view, the less good news is the commercial side of the agreement with the payers.
Thorsten Winter
Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for central Hesse and the Wetterau.
Because according to the words of the chairman of the management of the university hospital, Gunther Weiß, the house receives only slightly more money for each series of treatments than last time. The premium is below the inflation rate, as Weiss said. But most recently, the clinic had to provide financial support for particle therapy. At the end of the financial year there is a minus of 2.5 million euros with a total profit of the University Hospital Gießen and Marburg of 11.9 million euros.
“Inadequate funding for particle therapy”
For this reason alone, the head of the clinic is not completely satisfied with the agreement and would like to renegotiate. On the one hand, patients could continue to benefit from the system. On the other hand, it is not only the financing by the payers that is insufficient from the hospital’s point of view – Weiß also struggles with the short duration of the contracts. According to him, they are only designed for two years. However, this circumstance makes it difficult for the clinic and Siemens Healthcare, as the manufacturer and supervisor of the technology, to plan for further cooperation.
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The heart of the Marburg facility is a particle accelerator measuring 90 by 50 meters. Siemens basically said goodbye to this technology years ago and is not developing it any further, but has remained as a service provider. In the spring, the company also signaled to the Central Hessian university hospital that it was willing to continue working together. Weiß would like to have a longer term, especially since the cancer and radiation medicine specialist Sebastian Adeberg only moved from Heidelberg to the Lahn in the spring to manage and further develop the particle therapy center.
Rays fan out in the tumor
The facility has a special appeal because it can fight tumors with both hydrogen ions and heavy ions. For the second variant, the particle accelerator fires carbon ions. This type of radiation therapy is characterized by the higher biological effectiveness compared to the other variant. This in turn is due to the much denser release of energy to the tissue penetrated. Accordingly, the rays hardly damage the surrounding tissue on their way to the target and then fan out in the tumor. The ulcer is previously scanned in three dimensions.
According to him, Weiß has already approached the health insurance companies with a request for renegotiation – but has met with little love. He wants to try again in the second half of the year. In order to make economic progress, the facility should treat more patients. White gives 450 as a goal instead of 350 a year. This should succeed, for example, through cooperation with Turkey and Cyprus.