Krankenhausreform – Kurskorrektur dringend notwendig.

The article reports on the urgency of a hospital reform to ensure high-quality and patient-oriented medical care throughout Germany. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds emphasizes that the current draft law on hospital reform does not sufficiently achieve the reform goals and a great opportunity could be missed. It is pointed out that the performance structures of hospitals should be defined and made transparent nationwide in order to improve the quality of care. The federal states are seen as obstructing sustainable changes in the healthcare structures. It is also criticized that the draft law provides for exceptions for the federal states and maintains unnecessary structures. The planned increase in the state base rates is seen as a careless handling of contribution funds. It is also pointed out that the draft law predicts high savings potentials but does not provide a concrete derivation of these potentials. The transformation fund for financing hospital structures is criticized because the costs are ultimately to be borne by the contributors to the statutory health insurance funds. It is emphasized that the construction and restructuring of the healthcare infrastructure is a task for society as a whole. [Extracted from the article]