Service text
„Ausstellung von Wiederholungsrezepten und/oder Überweisungen und/oder Übermittlung von Befunden oder ärztlichen Anordnungen - auch mittels Fernsprecher - durch die Arzthelferin und/oder Messung von Körperzuständen (z.B. Blutdruck, Temperatur) ohne Beratung, bei einer Inanspruchnahme des Arztes“Not alongside — per the Gebührenverzeichnis (6)
Numbers the fee schedule names together with this one in an exclusion sentence. Open a chip for the wording, in German, and where it stands; about a particular case the sentence says only what it says.
Number 2 is valued at 30 points: renewing a prescription, issuing a referral, or passing on a finding by the medical assistant, and measurements such as blood pressure or temperature, wherever none of that involves a consultation. That gives 1,75 € at the single rate and 3,15 € at the 1.8-fold rate. The number stands on the list named in § 5 Abs. 3 GOÄ, which caps the frame at the 2.5-fold rate and sets the 1.8-fold rate, not the 2.3-fold rate, as the usual span. Alongside the same attendance, it may not be billed together with another fee, either.
The service text of Number 2
Four acts stand in a single number, joined by „und/oder“: renewing a prescription, issuing a referral, passing on a finding or a medical order, and measuring a bodily state such as blood pressure or temperature. Each one on its own satisfies the service text; none presupposes any of the others.
Expressly named is that findings or medical orders may be passed on by telephone and by the medical assistant. The number values an attendance of the physician at which one of these acts is carried out without a consultation taking place.
The service text ends with the restriction „ohne Beratung“ — without a consultation. As soon as an exchange about the finding or the order turns into a consultation, the attendance is no longer one under Number 2 but a consultation, for which the Gebührenverzeichnis provides its own numbers — Number 1 being the simplest of them.
The sentences below stand exactly like this in the Gebührenverzeichnis — some directly under Number 2, some as an Allgemeine Bestimmung to Abschnitt B. They are quoted here in German, word for word rather than summarized, because the German wording is what is legally binding. The English text after each dash is a working translation, not a substitute for the statutory wording.
- „Die Leistung nach Nummer 2 darf anläßlich einer Inanspruchnahme des Arztes nicht zusammen mit anderen Gebühren berechnet werden.“ — The service under Number 2 may not be billed together with other fees on the occasion of one attendance of the physician.
- „Für die nachfolgend genannten Leistungen dürfen Gebühren nach Maßgabe des § 5 nur bis zum Zweieinhalbfachen des Vergütungssatzes bemessen werden: Nummern 2 und 56 in Abschnitt B, Nummern 250, 250a, 402 und 403 in Abschnitt C, Nummern 602, 605 bis 617, 620 bis 624, 635 bis 647, 650, 651, 653, 654, 657 bis 661, 665 bis 666, 725, 726, 759 bis 761 in Abschnitt F, Nummern 855 bis 857 in Abschnitt G, Nummern 1001 und 1002 in Abschnitt H, Nummern 1255 bis 1257, 1259, 1260, 1262, 1263, 1268 bis 1270 in Abschnitt I, Nummern 1401, 1403 bis 1406, 1558 bis 1560 in Abschnitt J, Nummern 4850 bis 4873 in Abschnitt N.“ — For the services named below, fees under § 5 may be assessed only up to the two-and-a-half-fold rate: Numbers 2 and 56 in Abschnitt B, Numbers 250, 250a, 402 and 403 in Abschnitt C, Numbers 602, 605 to 617, 620 to 624, 635 to 647, 650, 651, 653, 654, 657 to 661, 665 to 666, 725, 726, 759 to 761 in Abschnitt F, Numbers 855 to 857 in Abschnitt G, Numbers 1001 and 1002 in Abschnitt H, Numbers 1255 to 1257, 1259, 1260, 1262, 1263, 1268 to 1270 in Abschnitt I, Numbers 1401, 1403 to 1406, 1558 to 1560 in Abschnitt J, Numbers 4850 to 4873 in Abschnitt N.
- „Neben den Leistungen nach den Nummern 376 bis 378 sind die Leistungen nach den Nummern 1 und 2 und die gegebenenfalls erforderliche Eintragung in den Impfpaß nicht berechnungsfähig.“ — Alongside the services under Numbers 376 to 378, the services under Numbers 1 and 2 and any necessary entry in the vaccination record are not billable.
- „Als Behandlungsfall gilt für die Behandlung derselben Erkrankung der Zeitraum eines Monats nach der jeweils ersten Inanspruchnahme des Arztes.“ — For treatment of the same illness, the treatment case is the period of one month after the patient's first attendance.
- „Terminvereinbarungen sind nicht berechnungsfähig.“ — Arranging an appointment is not billable.
The multiplier for Number 2
Number 2 stands in Abschnitt B but is expressly named in Abschnitt A of the Gebührenverzeichnis („Gebühren in besonderen Fällen“). For the services of that Abschnitt, § 5 Abs. 3 GOÄ applies: the frame reaches only from the single rate to the 2.5-fold rate, and the 1.8-fold rate takes the place the 2.3-fold rate holds elsewhere as the usual span.
§ 5 Abs. 2 Satz 2 GOÄ expressly excepts the services named in Absatz 3: for Number 2, the difficulty of the case cannot establish the difficulty of the service. What remains, under § 5 Abs. 2 Satz 1, are only the difficulty and the time taken for the particular service and the circumstances of how it was performed.
Above the 1.8-fold rate, § 12 Abs. 3 GOÄ requires a written justification tied to the particular service, comprehensible and traceable for the person liable to pay. For a service whose wording is limited to issuing and passing something on, such a justification has little else to draw on than what was recorded about that attendance.
What the record has to carry for Number 2
The treatment record is independent of the fee schedule — § 630f BGB requires it in immediate temporal connection with the treatment, whether billed privately or through statutory insurance. Even a service without a consultation — a renewed prescription, a referral, a blood-pressure reading — requires recording what actually happened, and by whom.
For Number 2 that means: which prescription was renewed, which referral issued, or which finding passed on, and that no consultation took place, has to appear from the record — otherwise the boundary against a consultation can no longer be reconstructed afterward.
The same applies to a justification above the 1.8-fold rate as to any other number: it must be tied to the particular service. For a service that by definition involves no consultation, such a justification can only be drawn from what was recorded about the act itself — the time taken for the measurement or the passing on — or from nothing at all.
Frequently asked questions
May Number 2 be billed alongside a consultation?
No. The service text expressly excludes a consultation; as soon as one takes place, the attendance is no longer one under Number 2, and the Allgemeine Bestimmung additionally bars billing Number 2 together with other fees on the occasion of the same attendance.
Why doesn't the usual frame up to the 3.5-fold rate apply to Number 2?
Number 2 is named in Abschnitt A of the Gebührenverzeichnis, and for those services the frame under § 5 Abs. 3 GOÄ reaches only to the 2.5-fold rate; the difficulty of the case as a whole does not count as a criterion there, under § 5 Abs. 2 Satz 2 GOÄ.
What does Number 2 cost at the 1.8-fold rate?
30 points times the point value of 5,82873 Cent give 1,75 € at the single rate; 1.8 times that is 3,15 €, and the 2.5-fold ceiling is 4,37 €. Rounding is to the cent, under § 5 Abs. 1 Satz 4 GOÄ.