Germany: "Stronger Controls By Funds"

Every second German believes that the public-sector health funds could exercise better control over spending, says a study conducted for the Federation of Interior Health Funds by the Berlin opinion research company Forsa.

A third of those surveyed said doctors and politicians should fight harder to prevent the waste of health service money, while 85% said the funds should have additional means to control price-increasing practices by drug companies and medical equipment manufacturers.

The fund wanted to know if it was justified in setting up a working group to investigate the economics of medical products. The group is to cost 1.5 million Deutschemarks ($947,250) a year, including payment to an industry leader to investigate the issue of alleged payments of bribes to doctors. The fund believes over 1 billion marks more than is necessary is paid annually for medical products, including drugs, and calls for funds to be given the right to control prices.