Demographic change and its impact on the health-care budget for heart failure inpatients in Germany during 1995–2025

ICD–10 is relevant for the German DRG compensation system. According to this reimbursement system, hospitals are no longer paid based on the number of treatment days. Under the earlier daily-rate system, the mentality of hospitals could easily have been“the longer the hospital treatment, the higher the compensation.” The new reimbursement system is characterized by lump sum-compensation: One hospital stay for a specified medical indication translates to a fixed treatment factor. This factor is the same for all German hospitals. This G-DRG treatment factor is multiplied by a federal state-dependent amount, which had an average value over all 16 German states of € 2,900.80 in 2009 [21], rising to € 2,947.90 in 2011 [22]. In other European countries, the DRG system is also used to regulate the reimbursement of inpatient treatments. To date, an additional 12 European countries have introduced the DRG system: Austria, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Sweden. In 2012, Switzerland implemented a Swiss DRG system [23].

Patients with one to three comorbidities are included in this number.

CorBene is a case-management program for patients with HF. In this study, the drug treatments, costs and hospitalization and rehospitalization rates of patients enrolled in the program were compared with a control group of HF patients with heart failure not under case management.