A new Hospital Care Improvement Act (Krankenhausversorgungsverbesserungsgesetz), passed by the Bundestag on 17 October 2024, will partially replace the current DRG-based remuneration system with flat fees and introduce newly defined service groups (for example, basic internal medicine and stroke units) as remuneration criteria. The reform is set to take effect on 1 January 2025.
The Act is based on proposals from the Government Commission for a Modern and Needs-based Hospital Sector, which presented a comprehensive hospital system reform in December 2022 (see Policy Analyses from 12 December 2022 and 7 February 2023). On this basis, the Federal Ministry of Health, government factions and the state health ministries developed and agreed on key reform points in July 2023 (see Country Update from 4 August 2023).