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Health Minister Karl Lauterbach: “This can avert a wave of insolvencies.”
Photo: Political Moments / IMAGO
A nice birthday present for Karl Lauterbach: An agreement was reached on Wednesday evening in the dispute over more transparency in clinic treatments.
Representatives of the Bundestag and Bundesrat agreed on a corresponding law in the mediation committee.
Now nothing stands in the way of a decision being made in the Federal Council, said the SPD Health Minister, who turned 61 on Wednesday.
“This can avert a wave of bankruptcies,” he said.
The clinics should also receive a “transformation fund” with a view to a planned major hospital reform, for which 50 billion euros are planned for ten years from 2025.
The federal and state governments should each share half the sum.
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The Federal Council initially stopped the transparency law passed by the Bundestag in November.
The aim is to create an online atlas that gives patients information about 1,700 clinic locations nationwide.
It should be clear in the “transparency directory” which hospital offers which services.
Data on treatment experience, the staffing ratio of doctors and nurses as well as complication rates for selected procedures should also be available.
The launch of the portal is still planned for May 1st, as Lauterbach said.
The law also includes provisions for billions in additional liquidity for the clinics.
It is intended to accompany a major reform with new regulations on hospital remuneration, which the federal and state governments have been negotiating for months.
When the law was temporarily stopped in the fall, several countries criticized that it would forestall the planned major reform.
They criticized interference with their sovereignty over hospital planning.
Lauterbach had made the passage of the law a condition for the large-scale hospital reform.
He announced that he wants to bring the plans for this to the cabinet at the end of April.
mfh/dpa