Company health insurance funds launch platform for feedback from policyholders

From mid-2025, 44 of around 65 company health insurance funds (BKK), including the BKK umbrella organization, want to survey their policyholders on the quality of their health insurance funds. The survey will initially be conducted via telephone interviews and later online. According to Siemens company health insurance fund SBK, the results will then be available to each participating health insurance fund individually and with the benchmark values. The overall results are published annually by the BKK umbrella organization at BKK level and with benchmark data at the level of the statutory health insurance funds.

According to the SBK, typical (process) indicators for health insurance funds are, for example, “approval rates, the number of appeals and complaints or processing times”. The Clinic Atlas aims to create transparency, for example, through figures on specific interventions or complication rates or on staff.

Feedback relevant for the selection of health insurance companies

“Extensive initiatives in recent years and the shared desire for quality orientation have achieved a great deal, particularly among health insurance companies. What we still lack in Germany is a concept for integrating patient feedback into our quality measurements,” says SBK board member Dr. Gertrud Demmler. According to her, it is important that the information is collected in a structured way and can be viewed transparently and that everyone participates in the feedback process as much as possible.

“You always experience the quality of a health insurance company when you need it. That's why feedback from previous customers is so relevant when deciding on a health insurance provider,” Demmler told heise online.

Lack of quality orientation in the healthcare system

Overall, the healthcare system lacks a focus on quality. “The basis of value-based healthcare is real-world data, especially patient feedback,” says the SBK. No improvement without feedback. If the results were made transparent for everyone, Demmler believes that not only individual organizations but also the entire healthcare system could develop further.

The SBK's plans to use patient feedback are based on numerous international role models “that are one step ahead of us”. For example, the Netherlands, where a national strategy was adopted in 2018. The aim is also to collect patient feedback for 50 percent of the most common illnesses. Important for this are standards for the procedure and clear responsibilities as well as “questions of financing, digitalization and interoperability […] This requires a regulatory framework”, according to the SBK. In this context, the integration of such feedback into the electronic patient file could be a great opportunity.

(mack)