With years of increasing regulation of the health market, competition law in the health care system is also becoming more and more important. It regulates compliance with the competitive conditions that apply equally to service providers and their professional groups, in particular through competition law, i.e.
Chief physician contract
Settlement check
Receivables management
Compensation agreements
Supply contracts
Budget negotiation
Hospital financing
In spite of the basic structure that has existed since 1972 and namely the division into equipment financing (health insurance funds) and investment financing (federal states), hospital financing has been characterised by a differentiated but not always consistent system of legal regulations since the introduction of the DRGs at the very latest. Legal requirements for hospitals are displaced by regulations of the Federal Joint Committee (GBA) and agreements of the self-governing partners at both state and federal levels.
Hospital planning
The authorities responsible for hospital planning at federal state level regularly check which operator may offer hospital services to persons with statutory health insurance at which location. Given that hospital planning is demand-oriented, in most cases it not only concerns the spectrum of authorised services, that is the structure of the specialist department, but also the number of beds in the hospital and its units.