BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - The statutory health insurers (GKV) are pushing for progress in the planned hospital reform to improve patient care in the new year. "There has been much discussion and even more demand for over a year, but we don't even have a draft bill yet," Stefanie Stoff-Ahnis, Director of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, told the German Press Agency. This is mainly due to the blockade attitude of the federal states.

Stoff-Ahnis expressed concern that it was primarily about the financing wishes of hospitals and the federal states. "We need to turn the reform debate on its head again and first talk about better care structures and then about funding - and not the other way around."

Last year, hospitals received around 93 billion euros from the statutory health insurance funds. "That was one in three euros from the wallets of those paying contributions. There is enough money in the system, it just needs to be used better," said Stoff-Ahnis.

The federal and state governments had agreed on further steps towards reform. Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is aiming for a draft bill to be drawn up in the new year. The plans aim to change the remuneration system for clinics with flat rates for treatment cases in order to relieve them of financial pressure to treat more and more cases. In future, they are to receive 60 percent of the remuneration for the provision of services alone. The basis for financing by the health insurance funds should also be more precisely defined service groups. They should also ensure uniform quality standards.

Lauterbach had already made it clear that the entry into force of the law, which was initially planned for January 1, 2024, would be delayed./sam/DP/zb