Kassenärzte boss warns of practice closures due to high energy costs

"If the heating costs for the practice rooms rise massively, if electricity costs for radiologists, for example, increase fivefold or even tenfold, then the question arises as to whether, for example, MRI examinations can still be carried out economically," said Gassen.

Kassenärzte boss warns of practice closures due to high energy costs

"If the heating costs for the practice rooms rise massively, if electricity costs for radiologists, for example, increase fivefold or even tenfold, then the question arises as to whether, for example, MRI examinations can still be carried out economically," said Gassen. He expects those who are already at the end of their careers to stop extending their leases earlier than planned. A third of family doctors are over 60 years old.

Crisis-related practice closures would be felt with full force next year or the year after, Gassen said. "And that in a situation where we are already unable to fill many practices. Local care is then even more at risk."

Criticism of the lawsuits by the head of the association of health insurance doctors came from the statutory health insurance companies. "These prophecies of doom unsettle millions of patients and are astonishing precisely because a practice owner receives an average of well over 200,000 euros in net income per year," said the spokesman for the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, Florian Lanz, of the AFP news agency. In radiology practices it is even more than 400,000 euros.

"It is already clear that the total doctors' fees will increase by 1.4 billion euros in the coming year," Lanz continued. That is "arithmetically 11,000 euros more per doctor, which comes from the wallets of the contributors". They should therefore rather "appreciate this increase in fees, which millions of people finance through their health insurance contributions, instead of reflexively calling for even more".

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