Lack of Investment Cost Financing for Hospitals Burdens both Directly and Indirectly: Analysis

Berlin – The lack of investment cost financing for hospitals by the federal states not only burdens the hospitals directly, but also indirectly. This is shown by an analysis by the RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research and the hcb Institute.

According to this, RWI and hcb currently expect around 15 billion euros in loans that the hospitals have taken out. According to estimates, this results in an annual interest burden of more than 400 million euros, according to RWI and hcb dem German Medical Journal informed.

The annual result of the clinics would and would be significantly better and gain more momentum due to the lower need for credit or even an increase in equity, said Christian Karagiannidis, member of the hospital government commission. The financial situation of the clinics would be “probably only half as precarious” if the federal states had actually made the eligible investment costs in recent years, said Boris Augurzky from the RWI and also a member of the Hospital Government Commission.

The German Hospital Society (DKG) last presented figures in March, according to which the federal states are still not fulfilling their obligation to adequately finance investment costs for hospitals. The basis was the newly collected annual “Inventory on hospital planning and investment financing in the federal states”.

The calculated investment requirement of around 6.7 billion euros was offset by around 3.3 billion payments actually made in 2021. In the previous year, the ratio was around 6.1 to 3.2 billion. For the year 2022, which is characterized by high inflation, the DKG study expects a significantly increased investment requirement of 8.13 billion euros.

From the point of view of Karagiannidis and Augurzky, the federal states are of particular importance in the current discussion about the imbalance of the clinics. In addition, Karagiannidis explained that increasing centralization as part of the hospital reform must also be accompanied by corresponding structural funds from the federal and state governments and possibly even health insurance companies, as was the case in East Germany after the reunification.

For the two experts, a Structural Fund 3.0 is a central key to effective hospital reform. “A structural fund that also focuses on sustainability and takes climate change into account would not only resolve the large investment backlog in the clinics, but also the significant CO_2-Reducing the footprint of the clinics,” said Karagiannidis. Augurzky added that only a structural optimization could lead to a sustainable stabilization of the economic situation of the hospitals. © may/EB/airztablet.de