Doubts about hospital financing in the corona pandemic are growing.

Last year, the clinics recorded 13 percent fewer treatment cases, but at the same time increased their revenues by 15 percent, complained the Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance (GKV) on Wednesday in Berlin.

In this respect, the first pandemic year 2020 was "the golden year of hospital financing," said Stefanie Stoff-Ahnis, board member of the umbrella association.

Christian Geinitz

Business correspondent in Berlin

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    The organization counted around 16.8 million cases in hospitals in 2020.

    In 2019 it was 19.2 million.

    Nevertheless, the revenues climbed from 80.3 to 92.5 billion euros last year.

    Of this, 10.3 billion euros came directly from the federal government for the flat-rate fees for treatment places reserved for Covid-19 patients.

    0.7 billion euros were made available for the construction of intensive care beds. 

    Disagreements in the clinic

    The association criticized the falsified impression that the hospitals had been working to their limits across the board because of the Covid 19 wave. In fact, on an annual average, only 2 percent of hospital cases were corona patients. Nevertheless, the hospital representatives in Berlin had tried to prevent the minimum requirements for nursing staff and thus deteriorate the quality of care, criticized the umbrella association: "All of this does not fit together."

    The Federal Audit Office had previously criticized inconsistencies in the hospital system. In January, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) stated in a letter to the Federal Ministry of Health under Jens Spahn (CDU) that the hospitals might have given incorrect information about the occupancy of their intensive care beds in order to benefit from Corona aid. The Court of Auditors spoke of a “massive overcompensation from tax revenues” in the compensation payments for the clinics. On the other hand, the German Hospital Society protested with the reprimand that there was no evidence for these practices. The Federal Ministry of Health announced that the concerns of the RKI had been reported to the competent authorities of the countries that are responsible for the hospitals.  

    In fact, meanwhile, the Ministry of Health of North Rhine-Westphalia appeased that it had not found any evidence that hospitals had provided false information about intensive care places in order to receive higher compensation payments. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that 70 houses were checked that had "abnormalities in reporting behavior". There “no systematic misconduct by hospitals was found”.  

    Stoff-Ahnis from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds praised: “With the beginning of the pandemic, the hospitals reacted prudently and acted quickly and unbureaucratically.” The system of statutory health insurance had proven itself in the crisis and ensured nationwide care for people. “However, the weaknesses, some of which are well-known, have become even more evident,” says Stoff-Ahnis. "The need for long-term reform in hospital care has now become acute at the latest."