Berlin, June 16, 2023 – On Thursday, numerous experts from the health care sector discussed in a symposium entitled “Future prospects for outpatient care: What role do MVZs play?” The focus was on the role of medical care centers (MVZ) for outpatient care and the current discussion about financial investors in the German health care system.
Clear criticism was expressed above all of the “Resolution on the creation of an MVZ regulation law” expected in the Bundesrat today. The ALM eV has already positioned itself with a detailed statement and concrete solution proposals. According to the Association of Accredited Laboratories in Medicine, it is foreseeable that the proposals of the federal states for regulatory interventions will clearly be at the expense of security of supply. In the healthcare sector in particular, reliable framework conditions are necessary that aim to ensure and improve the quality of care and to retain medical and non-medical specialists in outpatient or inpatient care facilities.
The chairman of the ALM eV made the following statement during the symposium at the capital city congress: “The preventive, regulatory interventions to be expected due to the initiative of some federal states in the Bundesrat are carried out without any evidence basis and carry the high risk of unwanted collateral damage in patient care. In particular, this would also affect laboratory medical care, which is already often organized across providers in the form of MVZs. In the opinion of many experts, the planned regulatory measures are not effective in terms of promoting the quality of medical care, especially in the capital-intensive specialist medical disciplines.”
dr Michael Müller continues: “In all planned legislative projects, the focus should be on the well-being of the patients. It is therefore right and necessary to improve transparency with regard to the ownership of all care structures and, on this basis, to specify the existing statutory regulations for reviewing the care mandate, billing and, in particular, the quality of care. As a result, the data already collected can be evaluated more comprehensively. It should be noted that the mandatory quality and annual reports of the medical self-government do not contain any indication of negative influences on the quality of care through non-physician ownership of MVZ.”
Martin Degenhardt renewed the opinion of the KV Bayerns (KVB) to restrict the participation of financial investors in the health system, although the medical profession was not unanimous on this issue. “No one wants to ban investments, but we need regulation,” says Degenhardt.
The health economist Prof. Dr. Frank-Ulrich Fricke (TH Nuremberg) and emphasized that the German healthcare system is urgently dependent on private capital. “Locusts are more likely part of the solution!” says Fricke. He also underlined the importance of effective regulation to ensure quality care.
Frank Dastych, board member of KV Hessen, emphasized: “Of course I also want to earn money with my practice. Health care costs money and the money that comes from statutory health insurance is not enough. Capital must then also be used here.” Dastych went on to explain that the medical profession without capital might be more likely to offer additional services that are not so necessary from a medical point of view.
Sibylle Sauch-Eckmann, Chairwoman of the Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers (BBMV), reaffirmed the common position of the host associations: The application of existing regulations makes new legal changes obsolete. Regulation must be independent of the sponsorship or organizational form of a facility. In particular, the proposed measures to restrict the establishment authority geographically are not expedient in terms of high-quality patient care. In addition, they are said to be counterproductive for structural change in the inpatient sector and would reinforce existing concentration tendencies. At the end of the panel discussion, she expressed the assumption that “a kind of fear of competition” was present in the current debate.
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