German healthcare policy is in complete disarray following the elections, says Hermann Thiel at brokers and consultants Terranus.

Last month the new health minister Philipp Rösler said he was introducing a new law which would limit majority ownership of MVZs to medical professionals. This has caused consternation in many sectors of German private healthcare, such as labs which use the MVZ model, and is likely to lead to a takeover bonanza before the law is passed in early summer 2010.

But Thiel, and others, say that it is probably too early to panic. PWC points out that the draft law is phrased in a way which would enable non-medics to be majority owners of MVZs in areas of unmet need. Thiel also says that the new law is far from certain to be passed. He, as other observers, say it is a sop aimed at supporters of the Free Democrats: “They are all doctors, dentists and Porsch drivers,” he claimed.

In fact, no one is at all clear of the direction of healthcare policy under the new healthcare minister Roessler. Thiel says: “The left wing Social Democrats are no longer in the coalition, but the Christian Democrats seem to have replaced them and are talking about market failure and continuing to push Ulla Schmidt’s idea of a central health fund. I talked to the head of a hospital yesterday and he said that every two months we get a new strategy. It is impossible to say where things are going.”

In any case, Thiel says the MVZ concept has not really taken off. “After five years we can say that it is a failure. The doctors see it as ending their independence and the hospitals see it as a way of getting into outpatient services. The insurers distrust them.”