Home visits to those in need of care to cut back

Berlin wants to save millions through strict home visits to those in need of care

Demographic change is increasing spending on people in need of care who can no longer pay the additional payments themselves. The state of Berlin now wants to react with drastic measures and has announced home visits to those affected. Thousands of people in need of care can now expect the co-payments to be reduced. In addition, the state of Berlin "wants to take a closer look at applications for care assistance".

Savings through home visits to those in need of care
The costs for the care sector are increasing year by year. Outpatient care within the four walls of the needy causes particularly high costs. According to the health senator Mario Czaja (CDU), the expenses "rose the most" there. Now Senator Czaja has announced that those in need of care can expect a home visit from the district offices. "Anyone who applies for nursing assistance will have to expect a visit from the district's specialists in the future," the health senator said on Tuesday. The red-black coalition apparently wants to implement savings through cuts in benefits.

All over Berlin, the responsible authorities should now examine applications for care assistance more closely. This measure is now to be implemented across the board, which has already been tested as part of a pilot project in the districts of Kreuzberg, Mitte, Steglitz-Zehlendorf and Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg since 2009. By checking the applications on the part of the offices, around 11.8 million euros in nursing services could be saved, according to the Senator.

Applications should be examined more closely
Regardless of the pilot project, the individual districts should process care applications more precisely. The Senate hopes that this will bring about a massive reduction in cost increases. From 2009 to 2010, the financial increase in outpatient care expenditure was 8.4 percent. A year later there was an increase in costs of only half a percent.

The care assistance is anchored in social assistance. For example, if people can no longer afford to pay additional care insurance for outpatient help, they can submit a special social assistance application. The co-payments for pensioners and disabled people are most often taken over.

Social associations criticize the planned home visits. These would only have a background: "To cut care services for people in need". (sb)

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Image: Rainer Sturm / pixelio.de

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