title: [Individual medical services with no entitlement to reimbursement: general conditions relating to german social legislation and liability law].
abstract: Physicians owe their patients the necessary duty of care in both examination and treatment. A physician who disregards this basic level of care acts negligently and may be held liable for damages. The same level of duty applies to contracting physicians (Sect. 76 para. 4 SGBV). The efficiency principle of Title Five of the German Social Code (SGB V), and in particular the jurisdiction of the Federal Social Court has already taken into account the strained financial situation of the Statutory Health Insurance Systems through increasing rationing elements: Panel patients' entitlement to benefits is limited by the procurement rights of the contracting physician so that actually the two-class medicine strictly denied by politicians has become reality long since. For the physician, a new legal obligation to inform his patient arises from the divergence between the civil and criminal part of the medical statutes on the one hand and the restrictive regulations for physicians practising under SGB V, creating considerable potential for conflict the extent of which will generally remain hidden from the medically ignorant patient. In its decision of December 6, 2005, the Federal Constitutional Court (BVerfG) has set limits to the increasingly restrictive jurisdiction of the Federal Social Court referring to the welfare state principle. The dictate of humanity of Section 70 SGB V must not be degraded to the rank of a mere political statement.
authors.affiliation: Anwaltskanzlei Wartensleben, Stolberg Herbert.Wartensleben@t-online.de
authors.forename: Herbert
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wartensleben
mesh_terms: D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000191:economics*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007883:Legislation, Medical; D008318:Malpractice / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D011331:Private Practice / Q000191:economics*; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms