Basis of the accounts of practitioners under contract to the statutory health insurance. Entry into the registry is a prerequisite for a licence in the statutory health insurance system.
Legal Base:
Permission regulation physicians.
Data Collector:
Practitioners' registry of the regional Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.
Reporting Stations:
Medical practitioner - Practitioners' registration office - regional Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians - National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.
Object under Review:
Medical practitioner/Psychotherapist.
Interviewees:
KBV Statutory Health Insurance physicians and psychotherapists.
Collection:
- Instruments:
FTP.
- Periodicity:
Monthly.
- First:
(1960, initially processed by computer in 1979) classification in 1980 approximately the same as today (2024).
- Last:
Inapplicable.
Processing:
- Periodicity:
Annually.
Publication:
- Regular:
estaal Statistical Information from the registry of Physicians (Bundesarztregister) from the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians.
- Irregular:
-
Completeness, Sample Proportion and Representativity:
Full survey (all practitioners and psychotherapists under contract to the health service taking part).
Conceivable Modifications:
-
Comparable Data Sources:
-
Remarks:
-
Last Update:
April 14, 2025
)
Definition(s)
Family doctors
X
further information on document
In terms of the Federal Medical Registry of the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians:
Family doctors (without paediatricians) are basically general practitioners with a specialization
as "Allgemeinärzte", general practitioners without a
specialization ("praktische Ärzte") and internists working as family doctors.
However, there are a small number of "Allgemeinärzte"
and "praktische Ärzte" who
work as specialists. For this reason, the number of family doctors (without paediatricians)
is slightly lower than the sum of "Allgemeinärzte",
"praktische Ärzte" and internists
working as family doctors.
According to the definition in section 73, paragraph 1a of the Code of Social Law V,
paediatricians are to be attributed to the family doctors. On the other hand, paediatricians
form a separate group of doctors according to the definition of the Joint Federal Committee's demand
planning guideline ("Bedarfsplanungs-Richtlinie des Gemeinsamen Bundesauschuss").
The presentation chosen here follows the definition of the Federal Joint Committee.
Medical service centres
X
further information on document
Medical service centres ("MVZ") are facilities, in which medical practitioners of different
specialization work together under a single roof. MVZ are nowadays established as service
providers in statutory medical care and are not only often mentioned by prospective physicians
as an interesting employer, but have also proven to be an important link in the connection of
outpatient and inpatient care. In the past, medical care centres could also be founded, for
example, by non-medical health care professionals and providers of services. In practice this
led to the fact, that MVZ were
often founded by investors, who as financiers, e.g. by the
purchase of a care service, fulfilled the conditions for the establishment of an MVZ.
In order to combat the risk of medical decisions being influenced by capital interests, the
Versorgungsstrukturgesetz, which came into force on 1 January 2012, stipulates that only
medical practitioners with their own practice under contract to the statutory health insurance,
hospitals, certain providers of non-medical dialysis services and certain charitable organisations
are entitled to establish an MVZ.
In addition, the establishment of an MVZ in the legal form of
a stock company, for example, was excluded. The management of a medical care centre must be in
the responsibility of a physician who works in the MVZ itself
and is not subject to instructions in medical matters.
With the Versorgungsstärkungsgesetz, which came into force on 23 July 2015, the legal
framework conditions for the establishment of an MVZ were
further developed. By the omission
of the earlier criterion of the interdisciplinary medical activity now
also MVZ with physicians
of one medical field can be created. That means that now also pure family
doctor MVZ as well as
specialized MVZ of one field are
possible. In addition, the municipalities were also given the
opportunity to establish MVZ and thus
actively influence and improve supply in the region.
(Source: Federal Ministry of Health)
Comment(s)
Facilities according to § 400 SGB V (formerly § 311 SGB V; the former polyclinics in the new federal states) are not included.
General practitioners and specialist physicians are defined according to § 73 (1a) SGB V.
Medical service centres were introduced in 2004 (§ 95 SGB V).
Medical service centres are not analyzed via the Federal Medical Registry but via a regular survey carried out by the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians where the Associations of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians are polled. Until 2012, medical service centres, where SHI-physicians work are also included in the Statistics on practices, so a double counting occurs. The allocation to a category of practices depends on the specialist field and the area of care of the medical service centres (for example: A medical service centre, in which two SHI-physicians work, a specialist internist and a surgeon, is counted as interdisciplinary specialist joint practice). Medical service centres, where only employed physicians work, are not included in the Statistics of practices, so there is no double counting. Since 2013, also medical service centres, in which medical practitioners under contract to the health service work, are no longer included in the Statistics on practices, so there is no longer a double counting.
As of 12/31/2019, there will be a sharp decline for the category of 'specialist multispecialty group practices'. The reason for this is that as of December 31, 2019, the physician groups of 'surgeons' and 'orthopedists' will be combined into the group of 'surgeons and orthopedists' in the contract physician statistics. This follows the merging of the two groups of demand planning physicians in the demand planning guideline of the Joint Federal Committee in 2019 and the merging of the areas in the model advanced training regulations of the German Medical Association in 2003. Due to this, joint practices between surgeons and orthopedists will no longer be counted as 'multispecialty joint practices' but as 'multispecialty joint practices' from 2019.
Refresh period of data
The table was extended by the year 2024 on 05 May 2025. Information for a new reporting period will be added as soon as it is available.
2002
All practices
Line chart