Hospital.Help

Berlin – At the end of the fourth term of office of the impartial members of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), the impartial chairman Josef Hecken expressly praised the work of the full-time and voluntary members of the committee and criticized the current health policy. Those who are now leaving the committee “will leave gaps and it will take a certain amount of time to reach this level again,” said Hecken in the plenary session of the committee yesterday. Hecken himself will remain as impartial chairman of the G-BA for another term.

The impartial Monika Lelgemann, who was nominated for the position by the statutory health insurance companies six years ago, will be leaving at the end of the month. Lelgemann, who held various positions in the health care system as a doctor, announced her retirement from the G-BA a year ago. She headed the subcommittees for method evaluation, arranged services, and psychotherapy and psychiatric care.

“I regret this very much and would like to take this opportunity to thank her once again for the work she has done over the past six years,” said Hecken. “Monika, you will be making the biggest mistake of your life if you now enjoy life and no longer spend time with us at the G-BA,” said Hecken, addressing her personally.

“I would prefer that we continue to deal with the situation together. Because we are only throwing sandbags here, like we did with all the floods in the country, in order to uphold the principle of self-administration, evidence and quality.” Hecken was referring to the current considerations regarding the “Healthy Heart Act”, in which self-administration is no longer supposed to take on its usual tasks in guidelines for the prescription of medicines.

Lelgemann explained that, looking back, she now knows “what I will miss about the G-BA and what I won’t.” She thanked everyone involved in the committees and in the plenary session for their trust. “And I would also like to thank you personally, Josef, for the trusting cooperation,” Lelgemann said to Hecken.

Hecken also looked back at other conflicts that occurred during Lelgemann’s term in office: for example, there was the debate about the care of patients with lipedema, started by the then Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn (CDU), who wanted to bypass the G-BA and enact the care into law. At the end of the conflict, the G-BA was able to set up a study to generate evidence – the results are still awaited. These should be available this year.

“You’ve really done a lot of work in the last six years,” Hecken continued about Lelgemann’s work. Numerous regulations came out of the subcommittees: for example, the special regulations during the coronavirus pandemic to enable doctor’s visits and medical prescriptions despite contact restrictions. “Many of the reliefs for remote treatments now apply permanently,” emphasized Hecken. Other topics included the transfer of early cancer detection services into organized programs and their expansion, for example raising the age limit for breast cancer screening. Child examinations and expanded newborn screening were also expanded in the current term of office.

Complex consultations were also held on the subject of out-of-hospital intensive care. “Here, she has guided the matter in a factual and solution-oriented manner and helped to shape the content, with the involvement of a broad specialist public,” emphasised Hecken. In psychotherapy, too, in addition to numerous adjustments to the psychotherapy guidelines, advice was given in particular to the complex treatment introduced for severely mentally ill people and systemic therapy, respectively, for children, adolescents and adults.

“In recent years, the G-BA has implemented a new evaluation regime for non-drug examination and treatment methods using high-risk medical products. As a result, there has also been a sharp increase in clinical studies that are designed, commissioned and supervised by the G-BA,” Hecken continued.

Hecken also thanked the voluntary members of the committee who will be leaving the committee on behalf of the health insurance companies and as voluntary representatives of the impartial chairman. “At the end of the term of office, my thanks also go to Claus Vogel and Christian Zahn, who, as voluntary deputy impartial members, have supported our work in the areas of demand planning, method evaluation and pharmaceuticals with their highly committed expertise.” These three committees are chaired by Hecken.

With regard to the voluntary members of the GKV, including Ulrike Haufe, Monika Lersmacher and Dieter Landrock, who are now leaving, Hecken thanked them for the intensive discussions. “Thank you for investing the effort and the anger to achieve something to improve care.”

The Health Committee of the German Bundestag has already confirmed in 2023 the appointment of the positions of the impartial members proposed by the sponsoring organizations of the G-BA in the fifth term of office, which begins on July 1, 2024. In addition to the impartial chairman Josef Hecken and the impartial member Karin Maag, Bernhard van Treeck is to take on the duties of the third full-time impartial member.

The four sponsoring organizations of the G-BA – the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Dentists (KZBV), the German Hospital Association (DKG) and the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds – agreed on these personnel proposals. The tasks and subcommittees are to be reassigned at the first meeting of the new term of office on July 4th. © bee/aerzteblatt.de