The reform of hospital financing in Germany: an international solution?

From 2003, each inpatient's stay at a German hospital will be reimbursed according to diagnosis related groups. The former German hospital financing system, which consisted partly of per diem rates and partly of per‐case rates, was abolished in an attempt to increase efficiency in hospitals. This can be seen as the government's attempt to act on the principles of evidence‐based policy. Since there is no strict global budget for inpatient treatment, it is not certain that those diagnosis related groups will actually decrease overall expenditures on hospitals. Also, it is argued that the introduction of diagnosis related groups in Germany may not be the last step in rebuilding the German health care system. The manner, scope and timing of this reform suggests that it will not succeed. Reforms lead to yet more reforms.