[The bought patient : The ethical value of per capita flat rates from a legal viewpoint]

From the decisions of the German Medical Council for safeguarding medical independence and the new version of section 18 paragraph 1 MBO with reference to the cooperation between hospitals and physicians for patient relationship management, it can be derived that clear competitive and professional limits exist in the competition for patients within the cooperation of hospitals and physicians. The ethical and professional foundation serving the patient that physicians must make decisions regarding the patient in an independent way free from commercial influences, plays a key role for the legal assessment of models for patient allocation irrespective of the planned increased commercial and competitive nature of the service provided by social health insurance caused by the health reforms.