Novitas BKK

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Novitas BKK
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social insurance Statutory health insurance
Cash register type Company health insurance fund (open)
legal form Public corporation
Jurisdiction GermanyGermany Germany
Seat Duisburg
Board Frank Brüggemann (Chairman), Kirsten Budde
Supervisory authority Federal Social Security Office
Insured approx. 400,000
Website www.novitas-bkk.de
Novitas BKK in Itzehoe in April 2013

The Novitas BKK is a company health insurance fund of the German statutory health insurance based in Duisburg .

history

The roots of today's Novitas BKK go back well into the 19th century: Among other things, the Novitas BKK comes from the Rasselstein company health insurance fund, which was presumably founded in 1828, and the “Hülfs health insurance fund in cases of illness and death from the Krupp cast steel factory, which was first documented on November 26, 1836 “Emerged.

The Novitas BKK got its current form through numerous mergers, above all through the 1997 merger of BKK Thyssen Stahl , BKK STEAG AG , BKK Th. Goldschmidt AG with BKK Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg to form Novitas Vereinigte BKK .

This grew in the following years through further mergers, including with BKK KM directly on October 1, 2003. The company health insurance funds of Klöckner-Moeller in Bonn , Kissing in Sankt Augustin - Menden and Axa in Cologne were merged. The following mergers have taken place since 2009:

  • On January 1, 2009, NOVITAS United BKK , Duisburg, merged with BKK Gruner + Jahr , Itzehoe; the seat was moved from Duisburg to Itzehoe, the name retained.
  • On April 1, 2009, there was a merger with the BKK of Norddeutsche Affinerie , Hamburg, and the name was changed to Novitas BKK - Die Präventionskasse .
  • On August 1, 2009, the ABC BKK was incorporated.
  • On October 1, 2009, BKK Dematic , Wetter, was merged with Novitas BKK.
  • On April 1, 2010 the ktpBKK was incorporated into the company; it goes back to BKK Krupp / EVAG, BKK Thyssen Industrie and KarstadtQuelle BKK, among others. The health insurance company is now based in Duisburg.

From January 1 to July 1, 2014, the chairman of the Novitas BKK, Ernst Butz, was also the chairman of the Phoenix company health insurance fund .

Since April 1, 2016, Novitas BKK has been managed by Frank Brüggemann (Chairman of the Board) and Kirsten Budde (Board Member since July 1, 2016).

In spring 2016, Novitas BKK received the DtGV Service Award in the “Telephone Customer Service” category.

With 400,000 insured persons (2016), Novitas BKK is one of the ten largest German company health insurance funds.

Mergers / predecessor health insurance companies

Contribution rates

From January 1, 2009, the contribution rates will be uniformly stipulated by the legislature. The board of directors ruled out the collection of a cash-specific additional contribution until 2013. From 2016 to 2018, it levied an income-related additional contribution of an above-average 1.35 percent of contributory income, reduced to 1.34 percent in 2019. Since 2020, the additional contribution has been 1.54 percent.

Public engagement

In three cities, the Novitas BKK has launched annual prizes to promote the common good and is a permanent jury member:

  • in Duisburg from 2010 to 2016 the Duisburg Integration Prize under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Duisburg. Since 2017, Novitas BKK has presented the "Duisburg example" once a year. In doing so, she directs attention to initiatives from Duisburg and the surrounding area that improve the quality of life for people with an illness.
  • in Essen since 2006 the Essen Solidarity Prize endowed with 2,500 euros under the patronage of the Lord Mayor of Essen. Thyssenkrupp has been the sponsor of the award since 2014.
  • in Itzehoe since 2010 the Itzehoer Bürgerpreis endowed with 2,500 euros in close cooperation with the city of Itzehoe and the Verein Neues Ehrenamt as donors.

criticism

Starting in autumn 2011, the Novitas BKK was repeatedly accused by pharmacists of jeopardizing the supply of their insured persons through excessive bureaucratic behavior. A number of pharmacies were not reimbursed for their costs for narcotics delivered because, in the opinion of the health insurance company, the pharmacist had changed the prescription by hand, but not signed it again, or had forgotten the addition “in writing” for “according to medical instructions”. In a survey by the magazine Apotheke Adhoc , 91 percent of the pharmacists surveyed stated that they did not agree with the cash register's approach: 68 percent accused Novitas BKK of “pure rip-off”; According to 23 percent, the formal requirements of the cash register miss the point. After months of disputes, the pharmacists' associations of North Rhine and Westphalia-Lippe agreed with the health insurance companies involved and the BKK regional association on the repayment of a large part of the retaxed amounts. At the same time, both sides unanimously emphasized that narcotics prescriptions had to be handled with special care.

Irrespective of this, refusals of payment to opticians, physiotherapists and other service providers are also known. In several cases, the Novitas BKK refused reimbursement of prescribed remedies for patients with severe permanent functional / structural damage, stating that they required approval from it. Only after persistent protests from insured persons, drug providers and associations of statutory health insurance physicians, the Novitas BKK waived an approval procedure for long-term drug treatments. Since 2015, regulations outside of the normal case have again been subject to approval.

The Novitas BKK was one of the few health insurance companies that charged an additional contribution for the first time in 2010 . The Bundeskartellamt initiated proceedings on suspicion of inadmissible price fixing. On September 15, 2011, the Hessian State Social Court in Darmstadt determined that the Federal Cartel Office's actions were illegal.

Furthermore, the Federal Audit Office has criticized the uneconomical handling of contributions by the insured. The unusual way of dealing with former executives and the high severance payments that were paid in the course of the many mergers were striking.

In addition, consultants are said to have received fees in the millions for mediating health insurance companies willing to merge. According to the findings of the Federal Audit Office, the consultations were not necessary because possible merger partners are known in the health insurance sector. The tests also showed that a consultant was also the head of an advertising and publishing company that designed the customer magazine for the health insurance company.

The Novitas Board of Directors rejected the allegations as "simply wrong". However, the fund, which, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel, now unites more than 30 company health insurance funds under its roof, had to demand additional contributions from its members in this context, since it could no longer pay otherwise for rehab programs or cancer drugs.

The Federal Court of Auditors cites the Novitas BKK as an example of the fact that the merger of health insurance funds did not lead to “any significant synergy effects”. Mergers tied up "considerable time and human resources" and were "associated with considerable, sometimes permanent, additional expenditure". On the other hand, there are “only minor savings”.

The health insurance company organized “too expensive company parties” twice. Despite a warning from the Federal Insurance Office after the first, there was another in the following year, which the Federal Insurance Office deemed too expensive. By means of a notice of commitment dated June 13, 2012, "the BVA instructed Novitas BKK to 'take recourse' to the responsible board members." The complaint against the notice of commitment by Novitas was initially dismissed by the Detmold Social Court and, in a second instance, with a judgment of 29 January 2014 from the State Social Court of North Rhine-Westphalia. The complaint against the non-admission of an appeal was rejected by the Federal Social Court on March 19, 2015.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Federal Insurance Office: associations of health insurance funds approved since January 1, 2009 .
  2. ↑ Carola Sonnet: Klöckner Moeller directly merged with Novitas Article from: General-Anzeiger (online edition) from September 16, 2003
  3. ↑ July 1st: New merger in the BKK family . Doctors newspaper , January 13, 2014; accessed on August 10, 2015.
  4. ↑ [1]
  5. ↑ DtGV Service Award 2016. In: DtGV. Retrieved on May 3, 2019 (German).
  6. ↑ No additional contribution . ( Memento from September 19, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Novitas BKK, September 19, 2012.
  7. ↑ [2] Novitas BKK, accessed on December 17, 2014 contribution rate novitas-bkk.de ( Memento from April 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ https://www.zusatzbeitrag-2020.de
  9. ↑ waz.de: Duisburg example for borderline projects . waz.de, 18. October 2017
  10. ↑ Successful everyday life for children and young people: Solidarity Prize honors the Princess Franziska Christine Foundation . Diocesan Caritas Association Essen , press release 207/2011, November 30, 2011.
  11. ^ Website of the Itzehoer Bürgerpreis
  12. ↑ dispute over Btm: NRW pharmacist mad at Novitas BKK . Pharmaceutical Newspaper , September 27, 2011.
  13. ↑ Ruth Ney: BtM-Rezepte - When goodwill becomes chicane . Doctors newspaper , November 10, 2011.
  14. ↑ Pharmacists outraged by Novitas Apotheke adhoc . ( Memento of July 14, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Adhoc Pharmacy, September 27, 2011.
  15. ↑ "Retax-Kassen" pay back . Apotheke Adhoc, June 4, 2012.
  16. ↑ BKK Novitas - Don't work for the Orcus! ( Memento of March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) market internal ophthalmic optics / optometry, version of March 8, 2012.
  17. ↑ Current regulation: New version of the Therapeutic Products Directive as of July 1st, 2011 . ( Memento from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Bavaria, July 27, 2011 (pdf; 146 kB).
  18. ↑ A. Roessle: Approval procedure for prescriptions for therapeutic products with long-term therapeutic needs . Saxony-Anhalt Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians , May 2, 2013 (pdf; 13 kB)
  19. ↑ NOVITAS BKK offers embarrassing acting . New general health newspaper for Germany , November 1, 2011.
  20. ↑ Additional contributions: Cartel guards investigate against health insurance companies . Die Welt , February 21, 2010.
    Suspected illegal price fixing: Cartel Office initiates proceedings against health insurers . manager magazin , February 21, 2010.
  21. ↑ Jutta Mauer: Information decision of the Federal Cartel Office illegal: Statutory health insurance companies do not have to provide any information to the Federal Cartel Office because of the announcement of additional contributions .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Hessian State Social Court , Darmstadt, press release 27/11 of September 15, 2011.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / lsg-darmstadt-justiz.hessen.de  
  22. ↑ a b Ulla Saal: Federal Audit Office reprimands BKK Novitas . Neue Ruhr Zeitung , December 1, 2009.
  23. ^ Katrin Götz: Novitas BKK: Itzehoer board must go . Norddeutsche Rundschau , April 15, 2009.
    Katrin Götz: Hamburg instead of Itzehoe: Novitas BKK changes company headquarters . Stormarner Tageblatt , February 5, 2010.
  24. ↑ Alexander Müller: Novitas BKK: Millions premium for cash scouts . ( Memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Apotheke Adhoc, December 9, 2009.
  25. ↑ a b Katrin Elger: Health: Adventurous compensation . Der Spiegel 22/2010, May 31, 2010, pp. 77-78.
  26. ↑ Comments (annual report) 2011: Mergers of health insurance companies must be economical . Federal Audit Office , January 3, 2012 (pdf; 31 kB)
  27. ↑ Fine: Health insurance managers have to pay for company parties . Bild.de , August 10, 2015.
  28. ↑ Regional Social Court of North Rhine-Westphalia, L 11 KR 399/12 KL . On justiz.nrw.de, accessed on August 10, 2010.
    LSG Nordrhein-Westfalen · Judgment of January 29, 2014 · Az. L 11 KR 399/12 KL . On openJur , accessed on August 10, 2015.
  29. ↑ Federal Social Court: decision of March 19, 2015, Ref .: B 1 A B 2.14 . On: Jurion , accessed August 10, 2015.
  30. ↑ The Novitas BKK asserts that, according to the legal opinion of the Federal Insurance Office, not even the serving of mineral water is permitted for the employees.
  31. ^ RP ONLINE: Duisburg: Novitas: Treasurers have to pay. Retrieved May 3, 2019 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 26 ′ 22.5 "  N , 6 ° 45 ′ 47.5"  E