The Federal Joint Committee must revise the regulations for emergency care levels in hospitals in accordance with Section 136c (4) SGB V. This is the result of a decision by the Federal Social Court (Ref.: B 1 KR 25/23 of 2 April 2025). The eye clinic represented by DOMBERT Rechtsanwälte has thus successfully appealed against the judgement of the Berlin-Brandenburg Regional Social Court.

of 22 June 2022 and its classification as a hospital not participating in emergency care. The eye clinic is run purely as an inpatient hospital and therefore does not fulfil many of the requirements for emergency care according to the contested decision of the Federal Joint Committee. Hospitals that do not fulfil the requirements of the decision have so far had to accept financial deductions in negotiations with the health insurance funds regarding their budget.

The Federal Social Court has now ruled that the provision of the resolution on non-participation in emergency care (Section 3 (2) sentence 1) is null and void. It is not sufficient for the Federal Joint Committee to justify the non-participation of a hospital solely on the grounds that it does not fulfil the specified requirements for emergency care. It must define explicit conditions under which a hospital does not participate in general emergency care. The court ruled that these must result in reduced expenditure within the meaning of Section 17b (1a) of the Hospital Financing Act, which justifies categorising the hospital in the level requiring a discount.

„Affected hospital operators should refer to the judgement of the Federal Social Court in budget negotiations with the health insurance funds and refuse to pay discounts until further notice,“ advises Rechtsanwalt Dr Maximilian Dombert, who represented the eye clinic in the legal dispute with the Federal Joint Committee.