Hospital Law in Germany and Europe

Abstract

The legal framework for hospitals defines the functioning of hospitals’ services as well as their financing and the financing of medical services carried out in the inpatient sector. The legal differentiation of this system succeeded the situation that hospitals have had problems to function in an economically successive way. The hospital financing is characterised by the DRG (diagnosis-related groups) system which means, in contrast to the outpatient sector, that medical services and all other hospital services are reimbursed in one-lump compensation.

The legal relationships between the hospital, patients and insurances are defined by the respective insurance membership of the patient. Social health insurances refund the costs for medical services directly to the hospital, whereas in the privately insured sector, the patient is cost debtor of the hospital and needs to get compensation by his insurance.

On the European scale, there do not exist specific provisions for hospitals because the legislative competence rests with the member states. However, there are some directives applicable to hospitals that concern specific security interests in the healthcare sector.