Germany limits number of hospitals that care for very low birthweight babies

doi:10.1136/bmj.c6881

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Annette Tuffs

¹Heidelberg

Several German hospitals are launching a legal action against a ruling that will restrict the number of hospitals allowed to care for very low birthweight babies.

The ruling, by the Federal Joint Committee, the regulator of Germany’s statutory health insurance companies, says that only hospitals that have cared for more than 30 babies with birth weights below 1250 g in 2010 will be reimbursed treatment costs by the insurance companies in 2011. This means that only 70 of several hundred hospitals in Germany will be allowed to continue looking after the 8000 very low birthweight babies born in Germany …