Healthcare Patient receipt

People with statutory health insurance do not usually ever see the bill for a doctor’s appointment. The doctor directly settles the cost of the services provided with the health insurance fund via the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (Kassenärztliche Vereinigung). For this to happen, insurance holders simply need to take their electronic medical data card to their doctor’s appointment. The disadvantage of this procedure is that patients have no idea which services have been billed or of the associated costs. 

Patients must be able to obtain a transparent picture of all their medical treatment – they have a right to this. You are therefore legally entitled to receive a patient receipt. This provides you with a list of all services and the associated costs that doctors settle with health insurance funds. It also gives you a clear overview of your medical history. 

Your doctor is obliged to provide you with a patient receipt at your request. The information contained must be presented clearly and be comprehensible even to people without a medical background. 

All doctors authorized to treat people with statutory health insurance (affiliated doctors) are obliged to issue a patient receipt upon request. This not only applies to family and specialist doctors but also to dentists.

A patient receipt can be obtained free of charge upon request following a doctor’s appointment. However, you can also opt for a quarterly patient receipt.

Medical practices must issue quarterly patient receipts within four weeks of the end of the quarter in which the services were provided. Quarterly patient receipts are subject to a one euro administration fee, payable by you to the medical practice. You must also pay delivery charges. 

Can I also get a patient receipt from a hospital? 

Upon request, hospitals are also obliged to issue a free patient receipt to people with statutory health insurance within four weeks of the end of their hospital treatment. The hospital will provide this on the day of discharge or send it by post. You are also entitled to a patient receipt if you receive outpatient treatment in a hospital.

Patient receipts must be clearly designed and include the following information as a minimum: 

• patient’s personal details (name and address)  
• date or period of treatment 
• tariff codes charged against 
• services provided (worded in a way that is understandable for laypersons) 
• expected costs  

Patient receipts from hospitals also include the: 

• main diagnosis  
• type and amount of the charges in the receipt 
• co-payment amount for the insured person 
• dates of admittance, discharge and (where applicable) transfer 

Another option is to obtain a patient receipt from your statutory health insurance fund. This is also obliged to provide retrospective information about the services received and their costs upon your request. 

Bills can sometimes include services that you do not recognize. In such cases, your medical practice or the hospital should be your first port of call. This usually makes it possible to clear up any misunderstandings or errors quickly. If this is not the case, you can also contact your health insurance fund with any billing queries.

If it is not possible to clear up questions about the bill, and services have actually been billed that were not received, billing fraud may have occurred. In this case, you should contact the Office for Combating Misconduct in the Health Sector (“Stelle zur Bekämpfung von Fehlverhalten im Gesundheitswesen”) at your health insurance fund.