German Medical Association
Berlin (ots)
Berlin, 24.05.2023 – “A legal regulation of investor-supported medical care centers (iMVZ) is legally possible and urgently required from a supply perspective. Such a regulation would help to protect MVZ as a sensible supply offer from the negative consequences of patient care geared towards returns.” This is how the President of the German Medical Association, Dr. Klaus Reinhardt presented the results of an expert opinion initiated today by an MVZ interest group on the legality of stronger regulation of investor-supported medical care centers.
Reinhardt refers to the regulatory proposals for iMVZ presented by the German Medical Association in January 2023. They are intended to ensure that patient welfare always takes precedence over commercial interests. The states of Bavaria, Schleswig-Holstein and Rhineland-Palatinate recently submitted an application with the same objective to the Bundesrat. “The proposals contained in the BÄK paper and in the Federal Council application serve the common good and are constitutionally justified,” clarifies the BÄK President.
From the point of view of the German Medical Association, the same must apply to medical care centers as to panel doctors and pharmacies. According to the case law of the Federal Social Court, it is necessary for the activities of contract doctors that they are directly responsible to their patients in the area of the actual treatment activity as well as in the actual and legal environment of this treatment. This requires that contract doctors determine the content and scope of their medical work and the use of material and personal resources assigned to the practice themselves and are not subject to any significant influence by others. The Pharmacy Act prohibits participations in a pharmacy in the form of a silent partnership and agreements under which remuneration for loans granted to the pharmacist or assets provided are linked to the turnover or profit of the pharmacy. From the point of view of the German Medical Association, nothing else can apply to medical care centers. The panel doctor law stipulates that the regulations applicable to panel doctors apply accordingly to medical care centers.
Reinhardt therefore calls for legal clarifications: “The restriction of the founding circle for medical care centers must not be further undermined by the fact that a hospital is only operated with the purpose of founding a chain of medical care centers and actually has no interest in inpatient care.”
The legal framework must ensure high-quality and dedicated patient care in MVZ. If the goal is to maximize returns, there is a need for action. “According to the settled case law of the Federal Constitutional Court, the health care of the population and its financing within the framework of our solidarity system is an extremely important public interest. The regulatory proposals of the German Medical Association take this into account. With them, the framework conditions can be aligned in such a way that medical care centers continue to treat their patients medically sensibly and do not focus their treatments primarily on returns,” says Reinhardt.
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Original content from: German Medical Association, transmitted by news aktuell