Overview
- KBV chair Andreas Gassen proposes a per‑visit “contact fee” of €3–4, collected by insurers, to bolster revenues and discourage duplicate consultations.
- Gassen also urges a digital “Ärzte‑Lotse” reachable via 116 117 to advise patients and coordinate care to reduce double and triple treatments.
- DKG head Gerald Gaß calls for doubling the daily hospital co‑payment to €20 and charging €30–40 for emergency visits without prior phone triage, estimating roughly €800 million in added annual revenue.
- The ideas are not government policy, and Health Minister Nina Warken has ruled out reviving the old practice fee and voiced reservations about a blanket per‑visit charge.
- Patient advocates, the SPD, Greens, Left, and the GKV umbrella group criticize the fees as regressive and ineffective, recalling the €10‑per‑quarter practice fee (2004–2012) that was scrapped over bureaucracy and limited steering effects.