Large equipment planning
The major equipment planning was part of the legal project to cost containment in the German health 1982-1997. Their aim was to regulate the locations for certain, particularly expensive medical devices and to limit the number of them.
After some federal states had already set up site plans in the 1970s, the national legislature initially introduced the nationwide obligation to coordinate large devices in hospitals with the cost-containment supplement law in 1982. For devices in independent medical practices, the Federal Committee of Doctors and Health Insurance Funds only passed a binding regulation in 1986, the guidelines for the needs-based and economical use of large medical-technical devices (Large Device Directive Doctors, Federal Gazette March 27, 1986). The large devices defined by the Federal Committee were computer tomographs , magnetic resonance tomographs , cardiac catheter measuring stations, gamma cameras , DSA systems, lithotripters and radiation devices . Billing for services on such devices now required prior approval by the responsible association of statutory health insurance physicians . These permits issued by the large equipment committees at the KVen were tied to the doctor's personal qualifications and evidence of his or her minimum technical equipment. Gamma cameras and DSA systems were released from the directive after a few years.
The 1989 Health Reform Act installed new large-scale equipment committees with SGB V, which consisted of representatives from hospitals, health insurance companies, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and a representative of the responsible state authority and which, in addition to provider quality, should now also take into account regional service requirements.
According to the Health Structure Act 1992, the authority to issue guidelines should finally be handed over from the Federal Joint Committee (i.e. the self-administration of the actors in the health system) to the regulatory authority (the Ministry of Health). The planned large equipment ordinance with reference figures for the equipment to be installed per population was never completed.
In 1997, with the second GKV Reorganization Act, state large equipment planning according to § 122 SGB V was repealed.