Declining quality, risk to patient safety, rising costs: KHAG jeopardizes infectious disease care
Joint statement by numerous professional associations—including the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)—on the deletion of the “clinical infectious disease” performance group in the draft Hospital Reform Adjustment Act (Krankenhausreformanpassungsgesetz = KHAG).
On October 8, 2025, the German Federal Cabinet approved a draft law to amend the Hospital Reform Act (KHAG). In a joint statement, numerous professional societies and associations criticized the removal of the “clinical infectious diseases” performance group as a serious mistake in health policy. They argued that this would undermine the central and important objectives of the hospital reform—improving quality and efficiency—and massively worsen the conditions for combating infectious diseases. If no adjustments are made in the further legislative process, patients with severe and complex infectious diseases would suffer in the long term, according to the professional associations.
Infectious diseases pose a growing challenge as the proportion of elderly and complex patients with complicated infections increases, the number of pathogens that are difficult to treat due to the development of resistance rises, and the global risk of major outbreaks and new pandemics increases.
Infectious disease expertise is medically and economically necessary
Numerous scientific data show that specialist infectious disease expertise increases the chances of survival in severe infections by up to 20 percent, reduces complications in patients, and counteracts antibiotic consumption and the development of resistance. The provision of specialized infectious disease expertise is therefore important for the health of patients and also makes economic sense.
Specific demands
The professional societies and associations therefore make the following specific demands:
- The “clinical infectious disease” performance group must be reinstated in the KHAG in order to ensure quality standards in infectious disease care.
- Infectious disease services must be reflected in the remuneration system in the specialist department code system and, in the future, via OPS codes.
Without these adjustments to the KHAG, with a structural anchoring of infectious disease medicine in the hospital plans of the federal states and in the hospital and remuneration system, there is a risk of the permanent loss of infectious disease medicine in clinical care and thus a considerable loss of quality and efficiency in the treatment of seriously ill patients. In doing so, the federal government is not only acting contrary to international standards, which place a high value on infectious disease medicine for reasons of quality and cost, but is also unnecessarily weakening the original reform goals of greater quality and efficiency in the hospital system.
The co-signing professional societies and associations include:
- German Society for Infectious Diseases (DGI)
- German Society for Internal Medicine (DGIM)
- Professional Association of German Internists (BDI)
- German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases (DGPI)
- German AIDS Society (DAIG)
- German Center for Infection Research (DZIF)
- German Working Group of Outpatient Care Doctors for Infectious Diseases and HIV Medicine (dagnä)
Source: German press release of the German Society for Infectious Diseases (DGI)