Prequalification

Under pre-qualification (from the Latin pre , "before" and " qualification ") refers to a pre-competitive qualifying examination, in which potential suppliers for specific requirements independently of a concrete bid to prove their expertise and capability to advance.

This procedure, which has been in use for some time in other European countries, is also becoming increasingly important in Germany. This creates a standardized company file for prequalification, the “virtual company dossier” for identifying potential contractors.

Prequalification in the field of statutory health insurance

In the past, opticians could apply for approval if they wanted to deliver to their insured persons at the expense of the statutory health insurance companies. The delivery authorization followed immediately from the approval. In the contracts between the Central Association of Opticians / the individual state guild associations and the respective health insurance associations, the conditions for the delivery authorization of approved opticians were regulated in detail.

On January 1, 2011, the prequalification procedure provided for in the law of April 1, 2007 was implemented. Compared to the approval, not much has changed in terms of content for opticians, but the procedure has changed. Prequalification is not carried out by the health insurance companies - as was the case with approval - but by institutions organized under private law, the so-called prequalification bodies. The first consequence of this is that, in contrast to approval, prequalification is not an administrative act. The prequalification confirmation will probably have to be viewed as a kind of expert opinion. The contractual relationship between the prequalification body and the opticians to be prequalified should therefore be a work contract.

Delivery Authorizations

The main systematic difference between health insurance approval and prequalification is that, unlike approval, prequalification does not directly entitle the optician to delivery. Rather, the prequalified optician must also conclude a contract with the health insurance companies. The prequalification therefore only serves to pre-select suitable contractual partners for the health insurance companies. However, a pre-qualified optician is a suitable contractual partner for all health insurance companies. Currently, this difference has no consequences for opticians, because the contracts concluded in the past continue to apply and as long as this is the case, the prequalification by way of contract entry means that the opticians are entitled to deliver at the conditions there.

Validity period

Another difference is that the prequalification has to be renewed every five years, even if nothing has changed in the respective company. The approval was valid for an unlimited period.

Procedure

The procedure that the optician has to go through in order to be prequalified has the central association of health insurances with the "relevant top organizations at federal level" - for the opticians the central association of opticians - with "agreement according to § 126 paragraph 1a SGB V on the procedure on the prequalification of service providers ”of March 29, 2010.

This procedure begins with an application from the optician to be prequalified, whereby the prequalification body does not usually begin the examination until the fee it has set in advance has been paid.

After receiving the application, the prequalification body will check within 10 days whether the application is complete and whether all prequalification criteria are adequately documented. If a site inspection is necessary, this will take place within 4 weeks of checking the application for completeness. If the documents are complete and free of contradictions, the prequalification body must issue the applicant with a prequalification confirmation within 8 weeks.

If evidence is missing, the prequalification body will request the missing documents by setting an appropriate deadline (2 weeks). If this grace period has passed without result, the application must be rejected. Together with the setting of a grace period, the applicant must be informed that the application will be rejected if the missing documents are not submitted later.

If the examination of the completely submitted application documents shows that a prequalification cannot be pronounced, the applicant must be informed of the possibility of commenting on the intended decision prior to the negative decision. The reasons for the rejection must be stated.

The applicant can lodge a complaint against a negative decision by the prequalification body. Despite the possibility of filing a complaint, legal recourse to the ordinary courts remains open. If the applicant files a complaint against the negative decision of the prequalification body without first having carried out the complaint procedure, this has no consequences for the complaint. In particular, it is not inadmissible because there is no need for legal protection. Because such a legal consequence would have to be regulated in the civil procedure code, an agreement between the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds and the relevant central organizations at federal level is in any case not sufficient.

Each prequalification body must set up a complaints body. Although a complaint procedure is printed as Appendix V to the “Agreement in accordance with Section 126 (1a) SGB V on the procedure for the prequalification of service providers” of March 29, 2010, the complaints procedure is unclear in many points. One can confidently describe the complaints procedure as unsuccessful. It is not even clearly regulated where the complaint is to be lodged, with the prequalification body or with the complaint body. In order to avoid legal disadvantages, the complainant (i.e. the applicant) should submit his complaint directly to the complaints office.

Prequalification criteria

In order to be prequalified, the prerequisites (prequalification criteria) specified by the statutory health insurance companies must be met. The requirements are divided into general, professional and spatial / factual requirements.

The general requirements include:

Proof of public liability insurance
Proof of freedom from bankruptcy
Proof of payment of taxes and social security contributions
Confirmation of the fulfillment of the commercial law requirements
Data protection
The requirements according to § 128 SGB V are met
Specification of the institution identifier (IK)

The professional requirement for prequalification is the passed master optician examination or an equivalent qualification (= state-certified optician, graduate engineer ophthalmic optics (FH), Bachelor of Science).

The spatial / material requirements depend on the supply area selected by the applicant. There are six different ones in ophthalmic optics:

Glasses and prisms, other visual aids (25A)
Squint Therapeutics (25B)
Occlusion plasters, watch glass bandages (25C)
Contact Lenses (25D)
Magnifying visual aids, reading stands (25E)
Electronically magnifying visual aids, reading stands (25F)

Proof of the existence of the prequalification criteria is provided by submitting the relevant documents (e.g. a copy of the master craftsman's certificate or the insurance certificate), by means of self-declarations (e.g. regarding freedom from insolvency) or by means of a log of a site inspection that has taken place, the submission of Room sketches, rental agreement or photo documentation (as proof of the spatial requirements).

Prequalification when awarding public contracts

Since 2009 the order advice centers under the leadership of the DIHK have been offering prequalification in the area of application of the procurement and contract regulations for services (VOL). This includes companies nationwide that meet the suitability requirements of § 6 VOL / A or § 6 EG VOL / A. With the prequalification, companies save themselves the submission of the individual evidence, as public clients can recognize the prequalification instead of the individual evidence. The generally accessible, nationwide list shows all prequalified companies from the supply and service sector. All prequalification bodies work on the basis of uniform guidelines.

Prequalification in the area of VOL is voluntary. In some federal states, however, it is recognized nationwide and also beyond the borders of the individual federal states by the public clients.

Legal regulations on this can be found in Section 97 (4a) GWB and Section 6 A VOL / A and 6 EG VOL / A.

Prequalification for the provision of control reserve in the power grid

In the context of control power (power grid) , prequalification denotes proof of suitability to participate in the tendering process for the allocation of control power. In this process, the suitability of a provider is checked. The rules for prequalification come from Appendix D of the transmission code .

Primary control reserve

Appendix D1 of the transmission code forms the basis.

Secondary control power

Appendix D2 of the transmission code forms the basis.

The aptitude is divided into four sub-areas:

Technical requirements for the individual technical units
Technical requirements for the provider's secondary control reserve pool
Requirements for the control system connection
Organizational requirements

Minute reserve

Annex D3 of the transmission code forms the basis.

Individual evidence

Web links

[1] Prequalification VOL

[2] Transmission Code 2003 Appendix D1

[3] Transmission Code 2007 Appendix D2 Part 1

[4] Transmission Code 2007 Appendix D2 Part 1 Supplement

[5] Transmission Code 2007 Appendix D2 Part 2

[6] Transmission Code 2007 Appendix D3