Gewinne im Krankenhaus
This article discusses profit-making in the hospital sector from an economic perspective. In an economy, profit-making is an important driver of progress and continuous efficiency improvements. Competition ensures that resulting corporate profits are limited and shared with the consumers. Due to the peculiarities in the healthcare system, however, negative effects of profit-making are also conceivable. However, a government-imposed cap on profits in the hospital market would not only be difficult to implement, but would also have undesirable side effects. This would reduce the incentive to use scarce resources efficiently. Private capital would be withdrawn from the healthcare system and thus reduce investment activity. Moreover, it would remain unclear how the profit-making of other healthcare companies would have to be handled, e.g. doctor’s offices, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacies. In order to limit profits effectively, quality transparency should be promoted and even a price competition could be considered. Undesirable effects should be limited by adjustments to the remuneration system. For example, if the current remuneration systems generate sectorally oriented thinking, intersectoral compensation models should be considered. A possible approach to this could be capitation models.
Augurzky, B. (2020), Gewinne im Krankenhaus. In Jürgen Klauber, Max Geraedts, Jörg Friedrich, Jürgen Wasem and Andreas Beivers (Hrsg.), Krankenhaus-Report 2020: Finanzierung und Vergütung am Scheideweg. Heidelberg: Springer, 185-204.