Health Insurers In Germany Claiming Over Charges from Hospitals - Insurance Agents Just Happen to be the #1 Least Desired Profession

This sounds quite similar to what we have going on here in the US with costs and claims being scrutinized. In reading here too it says they have a “complicated payment system”. What is interesting though on their practice in reading here is that if the insurer opens up a claim and it is not found to be erroneous and is in fact correct and fair, the insurer has to pay the hospital $300.00 for the invasion of their inquiry.

Patients are having to be charged extra, but I do not think it is anywhere to the extent of what we see here. Last year I spoke with a professor from Germany in Health IT and we compared a lot of notes and things are different and they have a public plan. You can read more about my conversation with Professor Dr Horst Kunhardt at the link below and see a screenshot of the EHR he wrote that is used in hospitals in Germany.

World Medical Tourism Conference 2009 – A Learning Awareness

You can also read here about where HealthVault is going in Germany.

Microsoft HealthVault and Siemens Bringing PHR Platform to Germany – And a Look at a German EHR

From my prior post:

“I think this will make perfect sense with integrating HealthVault for use with connecting to German EMR Systems. Back in October of 2009 I had the opportunity to meet many different representatives from different countries at the World Medical Tourism Conference and one of the most interesting was Dr. Kunhardt from Germany, from the University of Deggenndorf. Here’s a portion of that post below with some links to an active sample German EHR.

This is the work of Mr. Prof. Dr. Horst Kunhardt, Department of Business Informatics, University of App. Sc. Deggendorf and you can use the link here to a live demo to see how it works. I was curious having written an ambulatory EMR years ago myself just to see how it all came together. The system is created with open source software with my SQL and PHP for the demo shown. If you want to read up a bit more on German Medical Tourism, here’s a link to follow.”

Overbilling by hospitals is costing Germany's statutory health insurers up to €1.5 billion a year even as insurers are pushing up fees to plug funding shortfalls, an internal paper from their peak body has revealed.

Insurance agent tops list of unpopular jobs

The document from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurers (GKV) said the overcharging usually arises from mistakes but adds hospitals may be fudging bills to gouge extra money from insurers.
Losses of such magnitude are unacceptable given the tough financial circumstances health funds are facing, the association argued. They are demanding hospitals be penalized for lodging incorrect bills.

The clinics are in these cases obliged to return the overcharged amounts to the insurer. On average, this amounts to €1,100, according to the report. But in some cases it can be much more. The association said the complicated payment system meant there was no incentive to make sure bills were correct.

The nation’s statutory health insurers, who cover the vast majority of people in Germany, are facing a financial shortfall of €4 billion this year. Several funds have already announced they will have to charge their members extra.

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The least popular professions in Germany are insurance agent followed by career politician, according to a survey released this week. Almost 30 percent of the survey participants also said they would strictly advise their children against taking up the insurance trade. Here’s how the Germans voted on their top 10 least favorite jobs.

1. Insurance agent
2. Politician
3. Long-haul trucker
4. Street sweeper
5. Farmer
6. Elementary school teacher
7. Custodial worker
8. Banker
9. Doctor
10. Journalist