Healthcare trades demand a reduction in bureaucracy

To ensure high-quality patient care with assistive devices, structural, digital, and regulatory barriers must be urgently removed. Healthcare professionals have formulated five demands for policymakers in this regard.

This article is part of the special topic Bureaucratic madness in the craft industry

The association "We supply GermanyThe German Association of Healthcare Professionals (WvD), which represents healthcare trades, medical supply stores, and homecare providers, is calling on federal policymakers to ensure high-quality, locally accessible care for patients with assistive devices. To achieve this, "structural, digital, and regulatory barriers must be urgently removed." The WvD has formulated five demands for lawmakers.

1. Reduce contract variety and lower administrative costs
   The multitude of different contracts between health insurance companies and healthcare providers leads to considerable bureaucracy. WvD therefore calls for a uniform, nationwide administrative framework agreement that defines legal and administrative standards. This would allow future negotiations to focus on prices and quality of care, while eliminating unnecessary administrative burdens. The goal: more time for patient care, less paperwork.
2. Rapid integration into the telematics infrastructure
   Providers of assistive devices must be integrated into the telematics infrastructure (TI) and the electronic patient record (ePA) on an equal and timely basis. WvD strongly rejects postponing the connection until 2027. Only through the complete digital networking of all healthcare providers can the flow of information across sectoral and professional boundaries be guaranteed.
3. Simplify and digitize documentation requirements
   Documentation requirements in the provision of assistive devices have steadily increased in recent years without generating any real added value for patient care. WvD calls for the consistent reduction and digitization of these requirements, including the use of simple electronic signatures instead of handwritten signatures. WvD also rejects any new, additional documentation requirements.
4. Streamlining prequalification
   The current prequalification (PQ) procedure is too complex, too expensive, and too time-consuming. WvD wants to retain the PQ but calls for a fundamental simplification of the PQ system, for example, regarding site visits. Furthermore, it should be examined which requirements are already met by the respective job description and the associated qualifications, such as the master craftsman's certificate, and therefore do not require additional testing via the PQ.
5. Abolish zero reimbursement for formal defects
   WvD calls for the abolition of zero reimbursement for formal errors, analogous to the regulations already in place for pharmacies, contracted physicians, and hospitals. It is disproportionate to have the entire reimbursement for a properly rendered service revoked due to minor, formal errors – such as a missing date. Furthermore, the current regulation represents a blatant inequality between medical supply stores and other healthcare providers.

"Medical supply stores, healthcare professionals, and homecare providers want to provide care – not manage it," emphasize WvD General Secretaries Kirsten Abel and Henning Schweer. "However, bureaucratic and outdated structures, as well as new regulatory hurdles, are increasingly putting pressure on care provision. Policymakers must act now to secure the future of local assistive device provision."

Source: WvD

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