Berlin. The corona pandemic has led to a massive increase in the use of psychotherapy via video consultation. This is the result of a current evaluation of billing data from the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), which is available to the RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND). After that, the number of video therapy hours increased eight-fold. While in the first quarter of last year – largely in the period before the pandemic – 29,000 therapy hours were billed to TK insured persons, in the second quarter it was already 228,000.
“Digital technology shows its great advantages”
“Especially in psychotherapy, digital technology can show its great advantages: Therapy conversations are fast, uncomplicated and also possible over greater distances without the risk of infection,” said head of the cash register Jens Baas of the RND. Even if video technology cannot be used for all disorders and for all patient groups, it offers clear advantages in many areas, says Baas: “In view of the advantages, I am optimistic that the development will continue,” emphasized the head of the cash desk. Unfortunately, the health insurance companies do not yet have the data for outpatient care for the second half of the pandemic, he complained.
In this context, Bass criticized the long delay in settling accounts with doctors and therapists. “Especially in times of pandemics, we need a quick overview of the supply situation in the healthcare system,” he demanded. There is no reasonable reason why the data of the outpatient treatments took eight to nine months to travel from the practice computer to the data centers of the health insurance companies.
“The times when the practice sent its treatments at the end of the quarter by paper and in-house mail to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and from there to the health insurers are long gone,” he warns. The quarterly reference is a relic from the pre-computer age. “That is why we urgently need new deadlines adapted to the digital age,” he demands.
Among other things, Baas referred to the German government’s campaign to provide high-risk patients with FFP2 masks free of charge. In order to determine the corresponding patient groups, the outpatient accounting data was used, among other things. “Such data is an irreplaceable treasure for coping with a pandemic,” said Baas.
However, some patients, such as high-risk pregnant women, could hardly be located and supported if there was a delay of eight to nine months. Individuals affected would have been amazed when they learned that their health insurance company did not yet know anything about their asthma, which was diagnosed in late summer. “It is high time that the legislature changed the requirements here and created a daily update of the supply data,” said Baas.
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