New healthcare and long-term care regulations in 2014
A number of amendments in the areas of healthcare and long-term care will enter into force starting on 1st January 2014. Here is an overview of these amendments:
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Act on the Paramedic Profession
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Ordinance on the Implementation and the Content of Adaptation Measures as well as the Granting and Prolongation of Licenses to Practise in the Health Professions of the Federal Republic of Germany
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Article four of the First Ordinance amending the Regulation on the Licensing of Doctors
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Long-term Care Reorientation Act
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Average surcharge: zero
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Operands for the statutory health insurance and the statutory long-term care insurance
Act on the Paramedic Profession
This Act radically modernises the training of paramedics and brings it in line with current requirements. The duration of training increases from two to three years. The reform contains a comprehensive description of the training goals and defines quality requirements to be met by the schools and facilities providing practical training. The professional title ‘paramedic’ is also introduced with this Act. The training goal stipulates which skills are required of those working in the profession, to enable them to cope with critical situations. One new element is the right to payment of a trainee salary for the entire duration of training.
The Paramedics Act is supplemented by the Ordinance on the Training and Examinations qualifying for the Paramedic Profession. It specifies, among other things, the contents of the basic training and the state examination, as well as further details regarding the conduct of procedures for the recognition of foreign professional qualifications.
Ordinance on the Implementation and the Content of Adaptation Measures as well as the Granting and Prolongation of Licenses to Practise in the Health Professions of the Federal Republic of Germany
These regulations affect doctors and the members of other health professions who have received their qualifications abroad (EU and third countries) and wish to exercise their profession in Germany. Nationally standardised requirements for the recognition procedures that are to be conducted by the Federal Laender are stipulated in the licensing, training and/or examination regulations governing the individual professions.
In particular, the contents of the aptitude and proficiency tests are specified. In this context, special importance is attached to the testing of practical skills so as to guarantee the quality of patient care. Consequently, the examinations for doctors contain a patient interview for example.
Language tests are not stipulated. However, the Federal Laender must examine whether foreign applicants possess the necessary language skills to properly exercise the profession. In keeping with a decision adopted by the Conference of the Ministers responsible for Health, the Federal Laender are seeking to jointly develop a standardised procedure for testing the language skills of foreign doctors.
Article four of the First Ordinance amending the Regulation on the Licensing of Doctors
This amendment moves the written section of what was the Second Part of the Medical Examination and places it prior to the internship year, while maintaining the examination’s content and structure. This part of the examination had been criticised by students who called it the “clobber exam” as it had hitherto been located at the end of the six-year course of studies, after the internship year, together with the written part of the examination. In addition, the examination-relevant sections of what used to be the Second Part of the Medical Examination will be transformed into independent parts of the Medical Examination. After the practical training phase during the internship year, students will therefore complete the oral-practical section of what was formerly the Second Part of the Medical Examination as the new Third Part of the Medical Examination. As a result of the amendment, the examination phases can be better assigned to the individual learning phases in the future.gn doctors.
Long-term Care Reorientation Act
One provision of the Long-term Care Reorientation Act of October 2012, that will enter into force on 1st January 2014, will be able to help persons in need of long-term care and their relatives to find suitable facilities for care: long-term care facilities providing full-time inpatient care are required to inform the regional associations of the long-term care insurance funds, after a routine inspection, as to how medical, specialist and dental care, as well as the supply of medicinal products, are organised in their facility. They are especially required to draw attention to any co-operation agreements concluded and the latter’s content, to the facility’s incorporation into doctors’ networks as well to agreements concluded with pharmacies. Whether and what provisions a long-term care institution has made with respect to medical, specialist and dental care, and regarding the supply of medicinal products, can represent an important criterion when selecting a long-term care facility. The long-term care insurance funds are therefore required to ensure that this information is placed, free of charge, at the disposal of persons in need of long-term care and their relatives in a comprehensible, transparent form that allows comparison, both on the internet and in another appropriate form.
Average surcharge: zero
The Federal Government is expecting that, on average, the foreseeable expenditure of the health insurance funds, to the tune of 199.6 billion euros in 2014, will be completely covered by allocations from the Health Fund. Consequently, the average surcharge that constitutes the basis for tax-financed social equalisation will be zero.
Operands for the statutory health insurance and the statutory long-term care insurance
The income threshold pertaining to the statutory health insurance, below which statutory health insurance coverage is mandatory, will rise from 1st January 2014 to 53,550 euros (2013: 52,200 euros). The income threshold for employees who, on 31st December 2002, owing to the fact that they exceeded the income threshold then in force, were free to choose and bought coverage from a private health insurance funds, will increase to 48,600 euros (2013: 47,250 euros). The income threshold is used in determining whether a person is subject to compulsory insurance.
The contribution assessment ceiling for all persons insured with the statutory health insurance will rise to 48,600 euros (2013: 47,250 euros) or 4,050 euros monthly (2013: 3,937.50 euros).
The reference value that is of importance in calculating many other values in the social insurance – for example in fixing of the minimum basis for establishing the contribution rate for voluntary members of the statutory health insurance – will rise to 2,765 euros per month (2013: 2,695 euros). These reference values also apply to the statutory long-term care insurance.