Corona quick tests should only be free for certain risk groups from July, for everyone else they cost three euros. For Germany’s general practitioners, the new regulation is a major annoyance. They fear a “bureaucratic monster” and do not see themselves as “the debt collectors of an overburdened state”.
The German Association of General Practitioners has criticized the future rules for corona citizen tests with an additional payment of three euros. The plans are a bureaucracy monster with some hair-raising regulations, said the chairman, Ulrich Weigeldt. It is not the task of the practice team to check whether someone is going to a concert in the evening, for example, and is therefore entitled to claim. The fact that patients should provide information in a kind of self-declaration in case of doubt leads to paperwork, many questions and ambiguities.
Weigeldt made it clear that practices would be forced to set up a barge and collect three euros for some tests, which could actually only be a joke. “The general practitioners are not the debt collectors of an overburdened state.” In principle, it is right to limit the mass tests without cause and to increase the quality of the tests. “For this, the Wild West conditions in some test centers must also be prevented.”
According to an agreement in the federal government, the offer of free rapid corona tests for everyone is to end this week. From Friday, “citizen tests” will only remain free for certain risk groups – as a rule, three euros will have to be paid out of pocket per test in the future: for example, before going to concerts indoors, before larger family celebrations or visiting older people, after risk contacts in the event of a warning the Corona app.
The regulation is intended to reduce billions in costs for the federal government, which has so far completely financed the tests. The federal states can take over the three-euro citizen share if they decide to do so.
