[Putting freelancing in the medical profession to the test]

Hallmarks of freelancing in the medical profession include special professional qualifications or expertise. Identification with the activity is also reflected in a physician's responsibility for patients that goes beyond a mere business relationship. At the same time, this responsibility requires that a physician can act independently of economic aspects. Privileges of self-employed are, in addition to a fee schedule, the possibility to establish one's own pension fund and to exercise self-governance in medical associations. An important aspect of being self-employed is self-governance. The goal of the independence of those who are self-employed is to avoid the social and irresolvable conflict of values in state- or market-based systems. Physicians work in a field of tension between an empathetic, time-taking medical activity and a fast "economically sensible, expedient and necessary" medicine. Enduring this dilemma is the original task of the liberal profession.