Because dentists and health insurer ÖGK cannot agree on the financing issue, many patients now risk being confronted with an additional burden from 2025 if they depend on dental fillings. An EU-wide ban on amalgam fillings will come into effect next year.
Originally, further discussions between the Medical Association and the ÖGK were scheduled for November 14. However, the chairman of the health insurance fund, Andreas Huss, stated that established dentists with a health insurance contract would receive a maximum of ten percent more reimbursements for the amalgam substitute, the dental association criticized.
Doctors warn of ‘major loss of income’
“Since this offer is unacceptable to Austrian dentists for economic reasons, the negotiators of the dental association have decided to break off the negotiations due to the futility associated with Huss’s statements,” the report said on Friday. If the dentists had followed the ÖGK’s suggestion, it would have resulted in huge income losses for the practicing dentists.
This would also lead to a further thinning of comprehensive dental care provided by dentists with health insurance contracts, the Dental Association warned. This means that from January 1, 2025, the 7.4 million people insured with the ÖGK must first pay for their fillings privately to the treating dentists and then submit their invoice to the ÖGK to receive part of the invoice amount back. The most cost-effective alternative to the then banned amalgam is glass ionomer cement, which has been used for children and pregnant women since 2018. As before, composite fillings, inlays made of plastic, ceramic or gold are also offered.
Many services provided by dentists in statutory health insurance, such as tooth extraction or repairing dentures, are loss-making or, such as the very important consultation with the patient, are not reimbursed at all by the health insurer. the dental association has been informed of this.
Source: Krone
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