Barmer Krankenkasse promotes greater use of video consultation hours and criticizes the restrictions that are in force again. "Video consultation hours have proven their worth, especially in the corona pandemic," said CEO Christoph Straub of the German Press Agency. They were a building block that ensured that care remained stable, could be integrated more flexibly into appointment calendars and saved patients and doctors long journeys, especially in rural areas. The fact that video appointments have been limited to 30 percent of practice capacity since April, after an unlimited number of offers in the pandemic, builds up barriers and slows down digitization.

The demand for video consultations increased significantly during the pandemic, the cash register explained. Barmer policyholders used around 250 video appointments in 2019, and then a total of over 370,000 in the first two years of the pandemic, 2020 and 2021. Video consultation hours were used particularly often in psychotherapy, they were used 177,500 times. It is all the more regrettable that psychotherapeutic consultation hours and preparatory sessions before psychotherapy have not been possible via video since April.

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