Intended for healthcare professionals

Letters

Criticism of new German chronic disease management is unfair

BMJ 2002; 325 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.325.7370.971 (Published 26 October 2002) Cite this as: BMJ 2002;325:971
  1. Norbert Schmacke (Norbert.Schmacke@bv.aok.de), head,
  2. Jörg Lauterberg, vice head
  1. Medical Department, Federal Association of the Local Health Funds (Bonn-Germany), Kortrijker Strasse 1, D-53177 Bonn, Germany

    EDITOR—Tuffs' news item on the new chronic disease management programmes in Germany is misleading.1

    The new programmes have arisen from economic analysis showing the importance of ensuring that health insurance funds should not continue to be penalised financially when they have large numbers of patients with chronic diseases.

    The economic rationale for these programmes is not simply to fund deficits. There will be no extra money put into the system. Instead the existing risk adjustment strategy will take the higher costs for patients with chronic …

    View Full Text

    Log in

    Log in through your institution

    Subscribe

    * For online subscription