[Medical insurance consultation through the medical society in the PKV--a quantitative analysis]

Insurance medical consultation by a medical consultant or medical director is well established at many companies in the German private health insurance sector. Nevertheless, the field of activity of the medical consultant is hardly known to the public and even less scientifically investigated. The present study deals with a quantitative analysis of insurance medical enquiries to medical consultants. For this, the total of all insurance medical enquiries in a whole year have been checked and classified. The total of 5116 enquiries shows that a large demand for consultation refers to the medical necessity of medicaments, followed by consultation on complementary and alternative medicine (CAM). Further important fields of consultation are the assessment of out-patient and in-patient psychotherapy, the verification of the extent of physical measures, the duration of hospital treatments, the extent of laboratory testing, the examination of new medical methods and the definition of cure measures in comparison with hospital treatment. Increasing demand exists for the definition of the necessity of out-patient and in-patient operations, the definition of cosmetic surgery and medically necessary plastic surgery and for questions of reproductive medicine. There is also increasing demand for consultation regarding lifestyle drugs and anti-aging medicine.