KV closes on-call practices
Following a ruling by the Federal Social Court on the social insurance obligation of pool doctors, seven on-call practices in Rhineland-Palatinate are to be closed at the beginning of next year. These are the practices in Altenkirchen, Andernach, Emmelshausen, Frankenthal, Gerolstein, Ingelheim and Landstuhl, announced the Rhineland-Palatinate Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KV) in Mainz on Friday. The KV's assembly of representatives decided on Wednesday to adjust the regulations for the on-call medical service as of January 1, 2024.
Rhineland-Palatinate Health Minister Clemens Hoch (SPD) reacted indignantly. He said: "This leapfrogging by the KV is incomprehensible and is at the expense of patients." He added that the hospitals and emergency departments would also suffer as they would have to compensate for this. It is simply the KV's job to ensure the on-call service for SHI-accredited doctors; it is obliged to offer care to people with statutory health insurance outside of surgery hours. He would summon the KV board to the ministry in the near future. "It is unacceptable that the KV does not do its homework and then blames others," criticized Hoch.
The background to all of this is a ruling by the Federal Social Court in October. It had ruled that a dentist from Baden-Württemberg must be covered by social insurance if, as a so-called pool doctor, he complies with an emergency service organized by the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. The KV had initially announced a review of the consequences for Rhineland-Palatinate. On Friday, it said in a statement that the ruling would have a significant impact on the on-call medical service (ÄBD) in the state. As a consequence, the hours of duty of the ÄBD will also be reduced from January 2024.
According to the KV, there are currently 427 pool doctors in Rhineland-Palatinate who work alongside their colleagues in private practice in the medical on-call service. They cover around 60 percent of on-call duty and now have to pay social security contributions - even retroactively for four years. In view of this, the KV demanded that the "politically responsible parties" make an exception that would also apply retroactively.
The ministry stated that only around ten percent of these doctors working on-call duty were affected by the social security obligation for the first time - an obligation that, incidentally, applies to every employee in Germany. With its decision, the court had put a stop to the bogus self-employment of some pool doctors. The KV must ensure that social security contributions are paid properly. "Using this as a reason to not want to fulfill its duty to ensure the provision of on-call services is a purely pretextual argument and a more than arbitrary interpretation," said Hoch in a statement.
Despite the closing of several on-call practices due to the ruling, it's crucial for doctors under statutory health insurance to continue providing medical care outside of regular hours. The Health Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate emphasized the need for pool doctors to fulfill their social insurance obligations, as not doing so is considered a misuse of self-employment status.
Source: www.dpa.com
