Medical negligence is a matter of growing public interest. This review outlines various aspects of medical negligence: epidemiology, taxonomy, and the risks, causes, psychology, management and prevention of errors.
Medical negligence is a matter of growing public interest. This review outlines various aspects of medical negligence: epidemiology, taxonomy, and the risks, causes, psychology, management and prevention of errors.
Physical therapy is the most important element of naturopathy. In old age conditions accumulate that can be readily treated with physical therapy. It is possible to save on simultaneous drug treatment, and the risk of side effects can be reduced. The prescription of physical therapy in old age should not be regarded as restrictive.
The study reveals that stroke patients today can still experience gaps in the provision of healthcare and fragmented therapy. This is often the case on transferral from the inpatient to outpatient sector, causing complications that could be avoided by means of good discharge management across all sectors. Private health insurance can actively support and positively influence the treatment process in the form of case management. Individual contact with stroke patients and their relatives allows for early planning and organisation of the next steps, and offers patients the support they need during a difficult phase of life.
It is often difficult to pass an expert opinion in cases of chronic back pain. This article analyses the differential diagnostic considerations related to coding various causes in line with ICD-10. It emphasises the I importance of making a careful distinction between orthopoedic and psychiatric conditions and disorders. Simultaneous coding of orthopoedic and psychiatric illnesses and disorders based on a distinct cluster of symptoms necessitates an interdisciplinary approach that consistently applies the ICD-10 definitions of mental an behavioural disorders in order to clearly identify the main reason for a functional impairment in the insurance and sociomedical context. Persistant somatoform pain disorder with somatic and psychological factors (ICD-10 F45.41) should be regarded as related to the underlying disease and be used primarily as an additional and descriptive diagnosis.
The case report involves a 38-year-old female patient with muscular atrophy, paresis and sensory deficits in the right upper limb following several vaccinations. A legal dispute ensued over whether medical malpractice could have caused the neurological deficits. Medical malpractice could not be confirmed. Even vaccinations administered correctly can lead to neurological impairment.
Wearables are small personal minicomputers that register biometric data. In such a way, the insurance industry hopes to create new sales opportunities and products, and simplify underwriting. Lower premiums will promote the use of wearables. The related possibilities and unanswered questions are discussed in this article. Utilisation of big data offers the insurance industry a range of new opportunities. The benefit must be proven in the future, however.
Patented biopharmaceuticals generate huge costs for private and statutory health insurance. Exactly ten years ago, off-patent biopharmaceuticals, also referred to as 'biosimilars medicines', became available as a more cost-efficient and therapeutically equivalent alternative in Germany and Europe. Following their approval by all the relevant authorities, biosimilars medicines can therefore be applied in the same way as previously patented biopharmaceuticals.
Personalized medicines such as biologics and their generic equivalents, biosimilars, are pouring onto the pharmaceutical markets. Data of 16 private health insurance companies were used to describe the market shares of selected biosimilars available in 2014 and 2015. The purpose of this study focuses on the question of whether market access of biosimilars will lead to a price competition of the expense of innovation competition. The results show that prescriptions of biosimilars made up 37% of total prescriptions in 2015 compared to 35% in 2014, and that their share of prescription costs went up from 21% to 23% in the same period. Price competition similar to that found in the generic markets has been established for erythropoietin and filgrastim. The same has not been observed for follitropin alfa and somatropin due to the limited number of competitors and products available at this stage. No definitive conclusions can be drown from the results at this stage. Time will tell whether it will be possible for physicians and individuals with private health insurance to fully leverage the savings potential of biosimilars while safeguarding patient safety.
In the years 2005-2015, a leading assessment institute conducted numerous assessments on behalf of two major German private health insurance companies concerning the necessity of prescriptive therapies and remedies. The findings are presented in this article, and the results vary significantly, depending on the prescriptive therapy assessed.
Company health insurance plans are a voluntary employer benefit and an increasingly important part of company pension and benefits systems. They enable employers to invest in the health of their employees. They are also a useful modular complement to both statutory and private health insurance. Company health insurance plans allow employers to attract first-rate staff and to retain them for the long term. Employees, in turn, are provided with a variety of attractive additional benefits, for instance treatment by chief physicians, single or double-room hospital accommodation, additional aids and remedies, and a variety of screenings and medical check ups. It is expected that, in the next few years, company health insurance will become very widespread.
A medical consultant advises his company such that the persons insured receive the medically necessary benefits agreed in their insurance contract and thus are offered very good medical treatment. But it is also in the interests of all those insured to identify those treatments that are neither indicated, effective, nor medically necessary, as well as treatments which may prove dangerous to patients or result in overtreatment. Based on a representative sample, the present study examines which sums are not reimbursed due to this approach. The medical fields to be considered in particular are also addressed. It was found that the medical necessity of artificial insemination, alternative treatments, medications, innovative treatment methods and debatable cosmetic treatments, and certain other fields of consultation, would be worth investigating in particular. About 7 million € could have been saved in 2014 as a result of the advice from the medical consultant.
More than 500,000 people in Germany have chronic viral hepatitis. The interferon-based treatments formerly used in hepatitis B have been widely replaced by life-long oral medication with nucleoside or nucleotide analogues. Treatment for chronic hepatitis C has been improved substantially by the development of new and very expensive drug combinations. Up to 90% of patients can now be cured with certainty, and one to two years after successful treatment there is no relevant risk of recurrence. These individuals expect to receive insurance cover under appropriate conditions. Vaccination programmes are very efficient at decreasing the incidence of hepatitis B, but no vaccine against hepatitis C is likely to become available in the next decade.
DSM-5 lists a number of new diagnostic categories and also major changes in diagnoses that have previously been in use. The diagnostic sections of the DSM-5 and certain fundamental changes are presented. Some of the implications with respect to expert opinions are discussed. Certain aspects of the DSM-5 section on somatic symptom disorder will be discussed in more detail, since complaints of physical symptoms without an adequate medical explanation are very frequently encountered in the general population.
In August 2012, we reported (VersMed 1/2014, S. 9) the results for the first 12 months following implementation of AWMF guideline 051-029 in the medical assessment of mental health diseases with a view to sick pay and supplementary disability insurance (BU). Today we provide an update of the experience gained in the last three years. We are glad to report that the results have remained stable.
It is generally believed that telemedicine has a tremendous potential to improve health care. This publication reviews the current knowledge available on telemedical concepts for heart failure, diabetes and chronic pulmonary diseases, discusses existing difficulties, and suggests how such concepts could best be used in the near future.
The insurance branch that covers the risk of occupational disability ranks among the most important private entities for offering security as far as the limitation or loss of one's ability to work is concerned. The financial risk of the insurer, the existential concerns and expectations of the claimant, as well as the legal framework and the need for a careful interdisciplinary evaluation, necessitate a professional review and assessment of the facts conducted with a sense of both responsibility and sensitivity. Carefully deliberated and sustainable decisions benefit both insurers and the insured. In order to achieve this, an opinion is required in many--and especially the more complex--cases from an external medical expert, which in turn can only be plausible and conclusive when based on a comprehensive review of the claimant's working environment and its particular (and often unique) requirements. This article is intended to increase the reader's understanding of the coherencies of workplace analysis and medical assessments, as required by insurance law and legislation. In addition, the article delivers valuable clues and guidance, both for medical experts and claims managers at insurance companies. Primarily, the claimant's occupation, as conceived in the terms and conditions of the insurance companies, is explained. The reader is then introduced to the various criteria to be considered when a claimant has several jobs at the same time, is self-employed, could be transferred to another job, is simply unable to commute to the workplace, or is prevented from working due to legal restrictions related to an illness. The article goes on to address the crucial aspect of how the degree of disability is to be measured under different circumstances, namely using the quantitative and the qualitative approach. As a reliable method for obtaining the essential data regarding the claimant's specific working conditions, which are required by both the medical expert and the insurance company's claims manager, the reader is provided with an insider's insights into on-site workplace analysis. The value of this pragmatic and proven method is subsequently demonstrated when the article addresses the often decisive part of the medical expert's assessment. In its conclusion the article points out the importance of workplace analysis to the entire process of evaluating occupational disability claims and the effort and monies to be saved by attaching value to thorough workplace analysis at an early stage.
