Position of private hospitals

Our commitment

Focus on patients

The medical needs and well-being of the patients are always the focus of the private hospitals and form the benchmark for all actions. Humanity, empathy and care are given the highest priority. The staff always endeavor to find enough time to answer all questions about health concerns in detail. Thanks to well-organized structures, the private clinics ensure short waiting times and seamless coordination of examination and treatment appointments as well as transport. Our member companies take the individual needs and personal wishes of patients into consideration. They offer a consciously designed feel-good environment that reduces stress factors and promotes the recovery process and mental well-being. The feel-good factors include an appealing ambience and sophisticated cuisine that also takes individual tastes and preferences into account. Family and friends have ample opportunity to visit and are always welcome.

Quality, development and innovation

Our private hospitals stand for first-class medicine to the highest quality standards. Patient safety is our top priority:
- The majority of our member facilities are certified according to international standards and undergo recurring annual audits by external auditors.
- Our member hospitals participate in A-IQI, the project of the Ministry of Health to measure the quality of results. In addition, all Austrian private hospitals comply with the care and infrastructure guidelines set out in the Austrian Healthcare Structure Plan (ÖSG) and are monitored by PRIKRAF (Privatkrankenanstalten-Finanzierungsfonds).
- The aim of these statutory audit procedures, namely the best possible treatment outcomes in the interests of patients, applies to Austria's private hospitals. This is also demonstrated every year by reports from patient advocacy groups.
We are constantly committed to development and innovation in the healthcare sector for the benefit of patients.

Freedom of choice

The freely chosen medical representatives form the link between the patient and the private clinic. In private clinics, patients can rest assured that they will always be treated by the doctors of their choice, thus ensuring continuity of treatment. The free choice of doctor is a valuable asset and guarantees that the necessary relationship of trust can develop between patients and the doctors of their choice.

Diversity of carriers, efficiency and competition

Successful healthcare systems are characterized by a diversity of service providers and their owners. A sufficiently large proportion of private hospitals promotes competition and greater efficiency. This benefits the healthcare system as a whole. In the Austrian healthcare system , the interaction between public hospitals, denominational facilities and private clinics has proven its worth. In order for the benefits of such diversity to be realized, transparency in funding streams and comparability of services are important prerequisites. The greatest advantage of a sufficiently large sector of privately run hospitals lies in competition, which leads to greater efficiency and thus to the careful use of resources. The healthcare system is heavily regulated for the benefit of patients, and with good reason. Private hospitals are subject to strict requirements regarding equipment and staff qualifications. As they do not receive subsidies from public funds, neither during construction nor during operation, they must run their operations in such a way that the revenues from treatment services cover their costs while maintaining the highest quality. These economic requirements result in ongoing efforts to make processes and organizational structures more efficient, from which the entire national healthcare system benefits. The careful use of limited resources is an ethical imperative in order to be able to continue to provide the population with healthcare services. Private hospitals serve as an important source of inspiration and discussion partner here.

Health as an economic factor

Around three quarters of current healthcare expenditure in Austria is covered by public funds, including expenditure by the social insurance institutions, the federal government, the federal states and the municipalities. The remaining quarter is private healthcare expenditure. In addition to expenditure by private households, it also consists of expenditure by private insurance companies and other private non-profit organizations as well as company medical services. More than 3 million Austrians have private supplementary health insurance, which covers around 5% of annual healthcare costs, while 19% are borne by the Austrians themselves.

Private hospitals as employers

Our member companies employ around 10,000 people. All of them are qualified, in some cases highly qualified specialists in the areas of treatment and care, as well as technical services, management and administration. This makes private hospitals one of the most important employers in the healthcare professions. For their part, the employees are the most important pillar of the work of the private hospitals. In their daily work, they live the values that all private hospitals stand for: Integrity, empathy and human care, responsibility, quality awareness and team spirit. Working in our member companies is meaningful and offers individual employees prospects for the future, as education, further training and support for personal development are highly valued. Private hospitals make a significant contribution to the training of healthcare professionals by offering internships. The collective agreement for the employees of Austria's private hospitals, which is regularly negotiated with the social partner and is based on the needs and requirements of private hospitals as a minimum collective agreement, constantly strives to ensure fair and appropriate working conditions at the same time.

Fairness in performance and remuneration

Private hospitals relieve the burden on the public healthcare system. Around 100,000 patients are treated in private hospitals every year. If the private hospitals did not exist, one or two additional public hospitals would be required, which would have to be financed to a considerable extent by the public sector. In reality, this infrastructure is provided by private hospitals without the need for a single cent of public funding. If socially insured patients are treated in a private hospital, these patients are entitled to have their social insurance contribute to the treatment costs due to their contribution payments. These social insurance contributions - which are settled via the PRIKRAF (Private Hospital Financing Fund) - are significantly lower than in public hospitals. In 2018, the health insurance providers paid an average of around EUR 0.57 to EUR 0.58 per LKF point across Austria for all hospitals financed by the provincial fund (i.e. public hospitals). In the case of private hospitals (specifically PRIKRAF hospitals), the social insurance contribution was EUR 0.367 per LKF point. The Austrian Association of Private Hospitals sees this as unequal treatment and has therefore been calling for equal payment for equal service for years.

Transparency

The private clinics are committed to greater transparency in Austria's extremely complex healthcare system. This applies both in the relationship between the decisive bodies of the entire healthcare industry and in the relationship between doctors and patients. Transparency creates trust and prevents abuse. The Austrian healthcare system is highly fragmented, which makes it difficult to compare costs and services in different areas. However, transparency is a necessary prerequisite for ensuring the responsible use of limited resources. Only with sufficient transparency can the strengths and weaknesses of the individual participants in the healthcare system be made visible, and only in this way can benchmarks be set that enable mutual learning from one another. We are committed to a comprehensive and standardized reporting system for all sectors and are prepared to put quality figures on the table in order to achieve better comparability for patients. In order to improve quality and optimize the use of limited resources, it is essential to give people an account of the services, quality and costs of the Austrian healthcare system. PRIKRAF has gained a reputation as a role model in the area of transparent management and reporting thanks to the efforts of private clinics that bill their services via this fund.

Principle of benefits in kind and solidarity system

Austrian private hospitals support the solidarity system and are committed to the principle of benefits in kind. Patients should (similar to the public sector) be able to take advantage of medical treatment and preventive services, whereby the costs are settled directly with the respective insurance providers. This means that patients do not have to make financial advance payments or reclaim costs afterwards. In a solidarity-based system such as the Austrian healthcare system, entitlement to treatment is based solely on medical necessity and not on financial means. Social health insurance contributions are graduated according to the income of the insured person. High earners on the one hand and healthy people (who pay contributions but do not take advantage of treatment) on the other ensure equal treatment of financially disadvantaged people through their solidarity. Compulsory insurance makes this solidarity equalization possible. Private hospitals are in no way at odds with the solidarity system. The majority of patients in these clinics are socially insured persons who have taken out supplementary health insurance. By coming to a private hospital for treatment, they relieve the burden on the public healthcare system. Private hospitals as a whole also contribute to relieving the burden on the public healthcare system by providing essential care without the need for public funding.

Sustainability

Private hospitals are aware of their responsibility to provide medical and nursing services with minimal use of resources. Due to the nature of their work, hospitals have a high demand for disposable materials, as well as high energy requirements for cooling or heating and for the operation of technical equipment. Here, the individual hospitals are required to make ongoing improvements in order to minimize the consumption of resources and further reduce their carbon footprint.

Compliance

The private hospitals undertake to comply with all applicable legal, official and professional regulations, standards and guidelines, as well as the fundamental ethical values to which they are committed. Acting with integrity is the self-evident basis of all professional activities and decisions. Private hospitals treat all people with the respect they deserve, regardless of their ethnic origin, culture, religion, age, gender, skin color, sexual identity or ideology. No discrimination, harassment or insults, deliberate exclusion or gestures, comments or insinuations that show disrespect towards colleagues, patients, residents, guests, relatives or business partners will be tolerated. All sponsoring activities are strictly separated from any sales transactions, are proportionate to the consideration granted and are handled and documented transparently. Compliance misconduct can be reported to the authorities. The information is researched and reviewed confidentially by persons bound to secrecy.