GOÄ Lexicon: the numbers, the points and the fee behind them

The sections of the German fee schedule

The Gebührenverzeichnis is organised into sixteen sections (Abschnitte), A through P; the letters H and I each stand for exactly one section rather than — as everywhere else in the schedule — a subsection number written in Roman numerals. This list is the official structure; how many numbers within each section already have their own page on this site grows with every update.

What the German medical fee schedule regulates

The Gebührenordnung für Ärzte (GOÄ) — the German medical fee schedule — is a federal ordinance. Its annex, the Gebührenverzeichnis für ärztliche Leistungen, lists every billable service with a number, a service text and a point count. The point count is not a currency; it only becomes an amount once it is multiplied by the point value.

Alongside the schedule stand the paragraphs. § 4 GOÄ says which services count as services in their own right and that no separate fee applies to something that is merely part of another service. § 5 GOÄ governs how a fee is calculated. § 6 Abs. 2 GOÄ allows a stand-alone service missing from the schedule to be billed according to an equivalent service, matched by kind, cost and time. § 12 GOÄ sets out what has to appear on the invoice.

Between the numbers stand the Allgemeine Bestimmungen, the general provisions. They are the part read least and needed most: this is where it states which number may not be billed alongside which other one, and how often a service may be billed within a treatment case or a calendar year.

How a point count becomes an amount

Under § 5 Abs. 1 Satz 2 GOÄ, the standard fee is what results when a service's point count is multiplied by the point value. The next sentence names that value: 5,82873 Cent. Satz 4 sets the rounding rule — fractions below 0,5 are rounded down, from 0,5 up.

The fee that actually appears on the invoice is the standard fee times the chosen multiplier. How high that multiplier may go depends on the Abschnitt: up to the 3.5-fold rate for most sections, up to the 2.5-fold rate for Abschnitte A, E and O, and up to the 1.3-fold rate for Abschnitt M and Number 437. Within that range a usual span applies, above which a justification is required.

Every amount in this lexicon is calculated this way, from the point count in the Gebührenverzeichnis and this point value. They are arithmetic, not a recommendation.

What has to appear on the invoice under § 12 GOÄ

§ 12 Abs. 1 GOÄ ties the due date to the invoice: payment falls due once the person liable to pay has been given an invoice that meets the ordinance's requirements. What that means is set out in Absatz 2.

Absatz 3 is the sentence that does the most work in everyday practice. Once a fee exceeds the 2.3-fold rate, it has to be justified in writing, tied to the particular service, in a way the person liable to pay can understand and follow; for services under § 5 Abs. 3 GOÄ the same applies above the 1.8-fold rate, and for those under § 5 Abs. 4 GOÄ above the 1.15-fold rate. On request, the justification has to be explained further.

A justification tied to the particular service comes from the treatment record, or it comes from nowhere. That is the point where the fee schedule and § 630f BGB are talking about the same record. The items below are quoted in German, because the German wording is what is binding, with an English working translation after each dash.

• „das Datum der Erbringung der Leistung“ — the date the service was performed.
• „bei Gebühren die Nummer und die Bezeichnung der einzelnen berechneten Leistung einschließlich einer in der Leistungsbeschreibung gegebenenfalls genannten Mindestdauer sowie den jeweiligen Betrag und den Steigerungssatz“ — for fees, the number and description of each billed service, including any minimum duration named in the service text, plus the amount and the multiplier.
• „bei stationären, teilstationären sowie vor- und nachstationären privatärztlichen Leistungen zusätzlich den Minderungsbetrag nach § 6a“ — for inpatient, partial inpatient, and pre- and post-inpatient private-practice services, additionally the reduction amount under § 6a.
• „bei Entschädigungen nach den §§ 7 bis 9 den Betrag, die Art der Entschädigung und die Berechnung“ — for compensation under §§ 7 to 9, the amount, the type of compensation and how it was calculated.
• „bei Ersatz von Auslagen nach § 10 den Betrag und die Art der Auslage“ — for reimbursement of expenses under § 10, the amount and the type of expense.

Which numbers this lexicon covers so far

It started with the basic services of Abschnitt B — the numbers that come up in a private practice on an ordinary day: the consultation and the thorough consultation, the external history, the three examination numbers with the boundaries between them, the complete-body status, coordination for the chronically ill, and the house call.

The second step leads out of Abschnitt B: the repeat prescription, the house call to a further patient, the consultation between physicians, the detailed written report, the venous blood draw, the injection, the ultrasound examination of one organ and the resting ECG. Three of them — Numbers 2, 250 and 651 — are listed in Abschnitt A of the Gebührenverzeichnis, and for those the range under § 5 Abs. 3 GOÄ ends at the 2.5-fold rate, with 1.8-fold as the usual span.

The third step goes where a practice writes invoices without a case of illness, and into the procedure rooms: the four early-detection numbers of Abschnitt B III — for a child, for a woman, for a man, and the health check-up for an adult —, the visit to a patient on a nursing ward, the intravenous and the intra-articular injection, and the puncture of a joint. All eight stand in the ordinary range up to the 3.5-fold rate; none is listed in Abschnitt A.

The fourth step is the numbers whose service text or provision names a minimum duration or a unit of time: the group consultation, genetic counselling, the homeopathic first history, the discussion of a life-changing illness, and the two assistance numbers of Abschnitt B IV — together with the digital examination that the men's early-detection number excludes, and accompanying a patient to hospital. On these pages the duration stands only inside the quotation; the ordinance names it, and § 12 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 requires it on the invoice.

Every page follows the same structure: the service text in the official wording, the point count, the fees at the single rate, the usual span and the maximum rate, the Allgemeine Bestimmungen that name this number, and a section on what the record has to carry for this service.

The collection grows in steps, not all at once. Which number comes next is decided by search demand — and by whether the pages already published have been picked up in search.

• Number 1 — consultation, including by telephone (80 points)
• Number 2 — repeat prescription, referral, transmission of findings by the practice assistant (30 points, range up to 2.5-fold)
• Number 3 — thorough consultation exceeding the usual extent (150 points)
• Number 4 — external history and guidance for relatives (220 points)
• Number 5 — symptom-focused examination (80 points)
• Number 6 — complete examination of one organ system, first group (100 points)
• Number 7 — complete examination of one organ system, second group (160 points)
• Number 8 — examination establishing complete-body status (260 points)
• Number 15 — initiating and coordinating supporting measures (300 points)
• Number 50 — house call, including consultation and symptom-focused examination (320 points)
• Number 51 — house call to a further patient in the same household (250 points)
• Number 60 — consultation between physicians entitled to bill, for each physician (120 points)
• Number 75 — detailed written report on illness and findings (130 points)
• Number 250 — venous blood draw (40 points, range up to 2.5-fold)
• Number 252 — injection, subcutaneous, submucosal, intracutaneous or intramuscular (40 points)
• Number 410 — ultrasound examination of one organ (200 points)
• Number 651 — resting electrocardiogram (253 points, range up to 2.5-fold)
• Number 26 — early-detection examination of a child up to the completed 14th year of life (450 points)
• Number 27 — early-detection examination of a woman for cancers (320 points)
• Number 28 — early-detection examination of a man for cancers (280 points)
• Number 29 — health check-up for the early detection of illness in an adult (440 points)
• Number 48 — visit to a patient on a nursing ward (120 points)
• Number 253 — injection, intravenous (70 points)
• Number 255 — injection, intra-articular or perineural (95 points)
• Number 300 — puncture of a joint (120 points)
• Number 11 — digital examination of the rectum and/or the prostate (60 points)
• Number 20 — group consultation for chronic illnesses, per participant and session (120 points)
• Number 21 — detailed genetic counselling, per commenced unit of time and session (360 points)
• Number 30 — taking the homeopathic first history (900 points)
• Number 34 — discussion of the effects of a life-changing or life-threatening illness (300 points)
• Number 55 — accompanying a patient to immediately necessary inpatient treatment (500 points)
• Number 61 — assisting another physician's service (130 points)
• Number 62 — calling in an assistant for operative services (150 points)

What this lexicon is not

It is not billing advice. Nothing here recommends which number to choose in a particular case, gives instructions for reaching a higher amount, or interprets the ordinance beyond its wording. Where the ordinance interprets itself — and for the examination numbers it does so at length — its text is quoted, not summarized.

It is also not a product announcement. KI Praxis Tools sells one product, KiPT Voice. KiPT GOÄ is free and stays free. These pages exist because the same record that a justification under § 12 Abs. 3 GOÄ draws on is also the record § 630f BGB requires.

The official text was last read from gesetze-im-internet.de on 15 September 2026. The fee schedule changes; check the wording again at the source linked below before you rely on it for a decision.

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