Berlin – In January of this year, the German Medical Association published a 12-point plan for the regulation of medical care centers (MVZ). In it, the German Medical Association demanded, among other things, a ban on MVZs of the same subject, a spatial and subject-related restriction of the founding authority and an expiry of the protection of existing rights after 10 years.
According to the BBMV, a total of 9 of the 12 proposals are not suitable for further developing the legal framework in terms of high-quality and comprehensive outpatient care.
The BBMV chairwoman, Sibylle Stauch-Eckmann, does not want the statement to be understood as a fundamental opposition. Rather, the paper is based on a false basic premise, according to which MVZ groups with non-physician investors would pose a threat to supply. The demands are thus directed against this form of service provider and do not address structural challenges in outpatient care.
“Unfortunately, the paper by the German Medical Association does not deal with the actual challenges of outpatient care, but is directed unilaterally against a certain group of outpatient service providers,” says Sibylle Sauch-Eckmann.
According to estimates, around a third of the general practitioners will retire in the coming years. Young doctors are increasingly reluctant to set up their own business, mostly because of changed expectations of the practice. MVZ groups, also with non-medical capital partners, are part of the solution here to ensure outpatient care in the future.
The demands for more transparency and the review of supply contracts received cautious approval. In these cases, the BBMV speaks of “approaches worth discussing”, which should apply to all outpatient service providers.
“We are not opposed to transparency, quite the opposite,” explains the BBMV chairwoman. The debate over the last few months has shown that a transparent and valid data basis is urgently needed. According to Stauch-Eckmann, previous regulatory proposals are simply shot from the hip without any evidence.
The deputy BBMV chairman, Dr. medical Kaweh Schayan-Araghi. “The risk of poorer care has been talked about for years, but despite numerous investigations and studies there is no evidence of this. For me, the regulatory proposals of the German Medical Association breathe the spirit of protectionism. And even worse: they are suitable for deteriorating patient care in the short to medium term through the targeted exclusion of MVZ groups,” the ophthalmologist is certain.
In principle, from the point of view of the Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers (BBMV), there is no need for action relating to individual support and owner structures of medical care centers (MVZ). Thus, the basic premise of the position paper of the German Medical Association is rejected as a whole.
In this view, the BBMV sees itself primarily through the legal opinion of Prof. Dr. Andreas Ladurner, Prof. Dr. Ute Walter and Prof. Dr. Beate Jochimsen on “Status and further development of the legal regulations for medical care centers (MVZ)” on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health from November 2020, the recently published Response of the federal government including annex to a small request from the parliamentary group of CDU/CSU, as well as the study by Prof. Dr. Frank-Ulrich Fricke, Werner Koehler and Dr. Stephan Rau “The role of MVZ in outpatient medical care – is there a need for regulatory action?“ on behalf of the Accrediting Laboratories in Medicine (ALM) and the BBMV.
All three documents show that there is no evidence that MVZ with private, non-physician capital partners lead to a deterioration or endangerment of care.
You can find the statement here
About the Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers – BBMV eV
The Federal Association of Operators of Medical Care Centers is committed to a wide variety of providers and the best possible quality of care for patients in the outpatient healthcare sector. The members operate nationwide medical care centers (MVZ) and branch practices and thus contribute to local family and specialist medical care. In order to be able to make these investments in the quality of health care, they fall back on private, non-physician investors.