Cash doctors predict longer appointment waiting times from 2027

From 2027, a fixed quota of appointments will be set in medical practices. The Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung fears that statutory insured have to wait longer than before for doctor appointments. The cash doctors in Germany expect that from next year, the statutory insured will have to wait significantly longer for a doctor’s appointment than before. The Chairman of the Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV), Andreas Gassen, referred in the picture to the reduction of funds for ambulatory care. As a result, "more than 50 million dates" were cancelled. The deadline will therefore further intensify, said Gassen. The Federal Government’s austerity programme for statutory health insurance (GKV) provides for extensive austerity measures. According to KBV, the ambulatory area is particularly affected. The planned cuts in this area amount to around 2.7 billion euros for next year alone. A large part of the savings is to be achieved by capping expenditure. Criticism of extended "terminal reporting obligation" The KBV had already criticized this extended “date reporting obligation” in the course of the recently adopted reform of the emergency care. Until now, contract doctors were obliged to report free appointments to the appointment service centre. They could therefore determine the scope themselves. In future, there should be fixed quotas for dates that they have to report. This will not lead to patients getting appointments faster, said Gassen. "On the contrary: If a fixed quota of reported appointments is set and these are blocked in the practices, these are no longer available for the patients in these practices," said the cash doctor chief. The KBV had pointed out exactly this again and again, stressed Gassen. More money is needed for the ambulatory care – only then could more appointments be created. The Association of substitute funds (vdek) criticized, with his statements, the KBV chief "consciously stir up fears among millions of legally insured". KBV paints "a spectre of performance cuts and endless queues on the wall" and "carries out a political discussion on the backs of patients," said vdek chairman Ulrike Elsner. What is particularly absurd is the claim that millions of appointments will be eliminated in the future. The fact that practices will also have to report binding free appointments to the appointment service offices (116117) in the future "do not take any capacities from the system, but finally ensures a reliable mediation after medical urgency," said Elsner.