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Interview: Peter Lackner, Director, Uniqa International

Peter Lackner is a board member at Vienna-based pan-European general insurer Uniqa International. Uniqa has over half the €1.7bn Austrian 2011 private medical insurance (PMI) market, with €814m of premiums written in 2011. The company sells PMI in nine of its 16 East European operations. It also owns PremiQaMed, the largest private hospital chain in Austria. We talk with Lackner about the prospects for PMI in the region and Uniqa's country-by-country performance.
October 3, 2012

Surpluses in Germany

While the individual German krankenkassen are enjoying surpluses right now - collectively sitting on €22 billion - the central health fund that allocates money to all of them ran a €500 million deficit in the first half of 2012.
September 17, 2012

UK PMI goes to the web

Private medical insurance for individuals looks set to move online and direct, following Bupa’s decision to end the payment of commission to brokers from August. Bupa is also slashing the amount it will pay medics for procedures, in some cases by as much as half. The moves follow a decline of 35-40% in the number of individuals with PMI over the past 15 years according to Michael Payne, general secretary of the Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries.
July 20, 2012

New insurer uses foreign hospitals to cut prices

Passport2Health, a new UK insurer, claims to cut the price of healthcare insurance to people in the UK by at least 30% and often 50% by using foreign hospitals. CEO and insurance veteran Frank Levene claims that Passport2Health, backed by Lloyds syndicate Sirius International has slashed costs by striking innovative deals with top European hospitals.
July 19, 2012

Hospitals in Valencia still not getting paid

In the Spanish region of Valencia, hospitals are still in trouble: the region's much-publicised repayment of long-overdue reimbursements in May and June excluded acute providers. Administrative concessions - hospitals operating in the Alzira model - have been hit particularly hard, according to analyst Joan Barrubés of Antares Consulting. We talk with him to find out how the Spanish hospital market is dealing with the crisis.
July 13, 2012

Payor reform threatens German hospitals

Big, contentious payor reforms are taking place in Germany. These reforms look to cut costs in the inpatient sector, with separate laws changing payment regimes for hospitals on the one hand and psychiatric institutions on the other. We talk to Uwe Preusker of consultancy Preusker Healthcare to find out more.
June 29, 2012

Dutch insurers face new competitor amid allegations that half of hospitals will close

The big four Dutch healthcare insurers will soon face a new competitor. The SAZ, which represents the 42 smallest Dutch hospitals, plans on launching the new insurance scheme by the end of the year. The head of the association, Binso Wymenga, alleges that the SAZ is doing this because the big insurers want to close down his members, who make up nearly half of the 91 general and academic hospitals in the Netherlands. We take a look at Mr. Wymenga’s claims, and what this new plan involves.
June 29, 2012

Private individuals shoulder healthcare burden

OECD figures for the early years of the recession show individuals paying more out-of-pocket (OOP) and on private medical insurance (PMI) as growth in public expenditure slowed to a halt. But statistics are often uncertain - DG Ecofin and the IMF disagreed publicly on stats for country healthcare spending at a recent conference.
June 28, 2012

Why Polish private healthcare should soar

The Polish healthcare system is getting ready for two big reforms: changes to private insurance and the institution of a new data-monitoring system. Both seek to tackle rising costs, but the outcome is likely to be good for the PLN 30 billion (€7 billion) private healthcare sector. We talk to Paweł Magdziarz of Polish healthcare business management consultancy Formedis to find out more.
June 28, 2012

Payment by results saves Stockholm 17%

The cost of hip and knee replacement operations has dropped by an average of 17% for Stockholm County in Sweden. This is thanks to a new bundled payment system that has replaced DRGs. Even while reducing costs, this new system earns high patient approval and has cut waiting lists. We take a look at how it works ahead of its roll-out in the rest of the country.
June 27, 2012
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