The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians is calling for sanctions for missed doctor's appointments. t-online asked a family doctor what he thought of the proposal.
Regardless of whether you are a family doctor or a specialist, getting an appointment with a doctor quickly is often not easy. With specialists, you sometimes have to wait months. Nevertheless, it still happens that patients forget their appointments or simply do not show up because the symptoms are no longer present.
Now the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians has called for monetary sanctions for missed doctor's appointments. However, this cancellation fee should not be paid by the insured, but by the health insurance companies. The background to the demand is the strained financial situation of many doctor's practices. Read more about it here.
But what is the reality – are missed appointments really such a big financial loss for doctor's offices? t-online asked the local family doctor Dr. Till Brand about this.
He confirmed in the interview that it happens regularly that patients miss their appointments – “usually every day,” says Brand. In the doctor's large practice, the number is usually in the low single digits.
However, this does not seem to necessarily disrupt the daily routine of the practice – because, as Brand explains, there are always “more than enough administrative tasks” that could be handled instead of the late patient. In addition, there are always acute patients who need to be cared for.
Brand considers sanctions for failures, as proposed by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, to be “unrealistic”, even if they would be “theoretically desirable”. “Especially since the subsequent auditing effort by the health insurance companies would generate even more undesirable administrative effort,” as Brand continues.
“We don't think it's a good idea,” explains Brand. According to the doctor, it would make more sense to reduce unnecessary and duplicate examinations.
