Berlin/Germany. In response to the introduction of the healthcare reform law in the Bundestag (Lower House) by SPD and the Greens on 18 June 2003, the German Medical Technology Association, BVMed, has called for a new type of “healthcare economy” with more competitive elements, improved conditions for promoting research and innovation and better possibilities of co-operative input from medical technology companies in the health technology assessment procedures.

“The maxim of the healthcare reform law must be deregulation,” said BVMed Director General Joachim M. Schmitt in a detailed commentary of BVMed on the draft law at hand.

In its 25 page commentary, BVMed calls for a restructuring of the healthcare system that would ensure that,

:: patient care will remain qualitatively high value and economically efficient,
:: patient treatment will be seen as comprehensive and cross-sectoral and
:: patients will have fast access to innovative medical technologies.

Instead of the establishment of a “German centre for quality in medicine”, the existing structures and procedures for quality assurance and health technology assessment should be optimized, says BVMed.

The entire BVMed commentary (in German) can be downloaded via the internet at www.bvmed.de (Publikationen – Stellungnahmen) heruntergeladen werden.

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