Cash patient
Kassenpatient or Kassler are slang terms for a member of one of the statutory health insurances (GKV).
In Germany approx. 87% of the population are statutory health insurance patients. There one differentiates between "cash patients" from private patients who pay their doctor, hospital and other bills for medical services themselves (privately). As a rule, private patients are insured with a private health insurance (PKV), which - depending on the tariff - reimburses them in whole or in part or they are also entitled to allowance. Since January 1, 2004, statutory health insurance patients have had the option to choose reimbursement from their statutory health insurance . The amount of the reimbursement is limited to the scope of the statutory health insurance.
Advantages and disadvantages
Too long waiting times for a treatment appointment are often criticized:
- A representative survey by the WIdO (Scientific Institute of Local Health Insurance Funds) among insured persons at the end of 2006 showed: 25 percent of those with statutory health insurance had to wait at least two weeks for an appointment at the last visit to the doctor despite acute complaints, compared to only 8 percent for those with private health insurance.
- An experimental study by scientists from the Universities of Cologne and Hall (Austria) showed similar findings in 2007. Telephone calls to specialists asking for an appointment for a specific treatment or diagnostic service resulted in waiting times for those insured in the statutory health insurance system that were around three times as long as for private patients.
Time management
If, due to the distribution of patients in the population, a practice provides 35 treatment hours for statutory health insurance patients and 5 treatment hours for private patients, the time quota for statutory health insurance patients may be booked out for a longer period than the time quota for private patients. It is therefore possible that private patients will have to wait less for an appointment if the time quota is not exhausted. Emergencies, pain cases and urgent treatments are excluded from this - regardless of the insurance status. Violations are punished under professional law.
See also
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Sick people as opponents - doctors complain about patients ( memento from September 2, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), ZDF Frontal 21, June 12, 2007
- ↑ Waiting times at the doctor GKV insured persons wait longer than private patients
- ↑ New study: Statutory health insurance patients wait three times as long as private patients for a doctor's appointment for predictable treatments
- ↑ time management Dtsch Arztebl 1998; 95 (36): (15)