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Mainz Homeopathy should neither be able to be billed as a health insurance service nor should it be mentioned as an entity with special status in the fee schedule for doctors (GO). Today, the 128th German Medical Association called on the legislature to take appropriate measures.

The decision emphasizes that the use of homeopathy in diagnostics and therapy is generally not an option that is compatible with rational medicine, the requirement for the best possible treatment and an appropriate understanding of medical responsibility and medical ethics.

Therefore, the legal assessment of homeopathic drugs as medicines, along with a pharmacy requirement, should be ended, according to the rztetag. A revision of the medicinal properties of homeopathic drugs and the internal consensus regulation in the Medicines Act (AMG) is also necessary.

We don’t want to take anything away from anyone, said Marc Hanefeld, member of the Lower Saxony Medical Association. As a doctor, however, it is important to observe evidence-based principles, he emphasized during the discussion.

According to Angela Schtze-Buchholz from the Lower Saxony Medical Association, patients have a right to the treatment option of homeopathy, tolerance is required here. The medical expertise on homopathy should not be left to alternative practitioners, argued Joachim Suder, Baden-Württemberg State Medical Association.

Klaus Thierse from the Berlin Medical Association made it clear that the decision did not initiate a professional ban. This is the same discussion as the deletion of the additional term homeopathy from the (model) further training regulations (MWBO), which was decided by a large majority at the 126th German Medical Association in 2022.

The decision now made on billability points out, among other things, that the Advisory Board of the European Scientific Communities had already determined in 2017 that the claims about homeopathy are implausible and do not correspond to established scientific concepts.

Due to a number of circumstances, a misperception of homeopathy has spread among the general public in recent decades. Large parts of the population are still convinced that homeopathy is a tried and tested option that is partly equivalent to conventional medicine. However, it lacks reliable overall evidence and should be viewed as a pseudomedical method.

According to the Medical Association, the responsibility of the medical profession requires a clear positioning. This is particularly true in view of the current political hesitancy to remove homeopathy as a health benefit. © aha/aerzteblatt.de