Im Zuge des GKV-Modernisierungsgesetzes wird seit dem 1. 1. 2004 eine sog. Praxisgebühr von 10 Euro pro Quartal für ambulante Arzt- und Zahnarztbesuche erhoben. Neben einem Beitrag zur Konsolidierung der Finanzlage der GKV sollte die Praxisgebühr auch eine Verhaltensänderung der Versicherten...

<Emphasis Type="Bold">Background: The high number of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) has facilitated greater research, resulting in the development of innovative medical devices. So far, results from economic evaluations that compared drug-eluting stents (DES) and bare-metal stents (BMS) have not...</emphasis>

International comparisons of healthcare costs are growing in importance for a number of different applications. The use of common approaches to converting costs such as GDP purchasing power parities (PPPs) often does not reflect price differences in healthcare in an appropriate manner. This...

Dramatic increases in health expenditures have led to a substantial number of regulatory interventions in the markets for devices over the last years. However, little attention has been paid thus far to the regulation of medical devices and its effects. This article explores the policies pursued...

Objective To examine the price reactions of German pharmacies to changes made to OTC drug regulations in 2004. Prior to these changes, regulations guaranteed identical prices in all German pharmacies.Methods Two years after market deregulation, 256 pharmacies were surveyed to determine the...

Over the past 20 years, most European countries have introduced DRGs or similar grouping systems as instruments for hospital reimbursement. This paper compares and analyzes the methods used to determine prices for inpatient care within DRGs or similar grouping systems employed in nine EU member...

Germany has recently introduced a system of Diagnosis Related Groups (DRGs) to engender more appropriate resource allocation. The following article describes the German DRG-system and the methodologies used to determine prices. It analyses the extent to which prices, or calculated cost weights,...

Since the introduction of the system of diagnosis related groups (DRGs) for USA Medicare patients in 1983, case payment mechanisms have gradually become the principal means of reimbursing hospitals in most developed countries. The use of case payments nevertheless poses severe technical and...