[Ethics and diagnosis related groups]

At the turn of the year 2003/2004 a change took place in the in-patient sector of the German public health care system from the former daily-rate-based reimbursement of medical services to a reimbursement in accordance with diagnosis related groups (DRGs). At the same time, there are indications for a paradigm change in the allocation of medical services: away from the even provision of medical care across all country's municipalities towards a concentration in specialized medical centres - with uncertain ethical implications. On one hand, one hopes to cut costs in the in-patient area. On the other hand, it is questionable, whether cutting costs still allows an adequate treatment of multimorbid, chronically ill patients. The new system likely favours the active, autonomously deciding patient, who is capable of using additional information from the planned quality reports to obtain the best possible medical services. But the new system could create a disadvantage for the less informed patient groups, especially those who don't have easy access to such information. It is not our intention to idealise the German health care system before the invention of diagnosis related groups. Based on a survey of studies from the U.S., the article assesses consequences of such a system and relates them to ethical considerations.