BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to discuss the planned reorganization of hospitals in Germany again with the heads of the federal states on Wednesday. A draft bill is now available. Lauterbach "finally" submitted his draft at the weekend, Bavaria's head of department Judith Gerlach (CSU) told the "Augsburger Allgemeine" (Wednesday) ahead of the talks. The federal states still see an urgent need for change in many areas. "I expect Lauterbach to take the concerns and needs of the federal states seriously."

The reform plans aim to change remuneration with flat rates for treatment cases in order to relieve clinics of financial pressure to treat more and more cases. In future, they are to receive 60 percent of the remuneration simply for providing services. Financing by the health insurance funds is to be based on more precisely defined service groups. They are intended to ensure uniform quality standards.

The CEO of Barmer Krankenkasse, Christoph Straub, warned: "There must be no further compromises on quality when coordinating with the federal states." There is a risk that the much-heralded reform will remain a purely financial reform. "This threatens enormous costs for the system and those with statutory health insurance, without the urgently needed quality and structural changes actually being tackled."

Among other things, Bavaria is campaigning for the federal states to be given the opportunity to deviate from the nationwide structural requirements in order to guarantee the security of care, said Gerlach. "With the current rigid requirements and the planned time limits, the hospital planning competence of the federal states is massively impaired."

The federal-state round table has met several times in recent months for difficult discussions. There are various points of criticism among the federal states regarding the legislative plans, which, according to Lauterbach, should no longer be designed in such a way that they require approval in the Bundesrat. The Minister had stated that the Federal Cabinet should deal with the plans in the coming week. The federal states and hospitals are also calling for additional financial aid to be provided quickly, even before the planned major reform /sam/DP/zb