VDGH warns on patient payments on diagnostics in Germany
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Payments by the patient for lab diagnostic tests done in the hospital setting are still the exception in Germany. So said Heidelberg-based lab medicine specialist Professor Dr Heinrich Schmidt-Gayk, speaking at last week's conference of the VDGH, Germany's diagnostics industry association, in Berlin. However, the weaker economic situation in Germany has put pressure on clinics to consider how they must charge for lab medicine and other procedures, and so it is expected by Professor Gayk that patients will be required to make co-payments for such services in the future.