The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed), based in Washington, D.C., has released a statement by Advamed's president and CEO Stephen J. Ubl. The statement concerns the German government's recent passage of the Hospital Financing Reform Act, and improvements to the Innovation Clause:

Mr. Ubl said, "This important amendment to the Innovation Clause (section 6 of the Hospital Reimbursement Act) will now allow hospitals the right to request reimbursement for innovative technologies in an expedited manner. Hospitals may now apply for approved innovative products earlier in the year and independent of their yearly overall budget expenditures. This is an important step toward a more efficient access to health care that will benefit German patients.

"Previously, patients would have to wait up to a year to benefit from a positive decision from The German Institute for Hospital Reimbursement (InEK, Institut fur das Entgeltsystem im Krankenhaus) on new therapies because hospitals could only submit the application for reimbursement at the end of their budget negotiations, which often took close to a year to complete.
"We commend the German parliament for improving patient access to life-saving, life-enhancing medical innovations."

BVMed, the German Medical Technology Association, explained on its Web site that the agreed amendment of the innovation clause offers hospitals the opportunity to request the reimbursement of innovative technologies for a patient of the health insurance funds "in a flexible way instead of linking it to a set deadline." "This is an important step towards an efficient and modern type of health care," said BVMed Director General and member of the board Joachim M. Schmitt.

The organization's press release went on to say, "The innovation clause was the right decision made by the lawmakers. However, in practice little usage had been made of the reimbursement provided by the clause due to problems with its implementation. The decision made yesterday was a significant improvement. A further step was needed now to make the application and assessment procedure for new examination and treatment methods (Neue Untersuchungs-und Behandlungsmethoden, NUB) more transparent and less bureaucratic. The full benefit of the innovation clause could then be developed."

Adapted from press releases by AdvaMed and BVMed

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