The treatment contract is a service contract and regulates rights and obligations between patient and doctor. The contract includes both patients with statutory and private insurance.
The treatment contract provides for the doctor to be remunerated for his services. For people with statutory health insurance, the health insurance fund pays for the services. Private patients initially pay the remuneration themselves. The amount of the costs is set out in the profession-specific fee schedule.
The doctor is obliged to provide his services, which include examination and treatment in accordance with the rules of medical science. The intended success is healing or alleviation. The doctor does not have to guarantee success – the reason for this is the uncontrollability of the processes in the human body. The processes in the human body are too intertwined to be responsible for success, i.e. health. The unpredictable factor here is fate. The doctor can therefore not guarantee health at the end of the contract.
The contract therefore does not provide for a right to free rectification of the defect if the treatment is unsuccessful. If the treatment is unsuccessful, it does not necessarily mean that there is a medical error. The contract also stipulates the liability of the doctor.
Usually, the doctor and patient conclude the treatment contract orally. The patient requests medical treatment. As soon as a doctor starts treating a patient, a treatment contract is already in place. The treatment contract does not need to be formalised.
Learn more about details of the treatment contract:
- Contractual Forms
- Treatment obligation of the doctor
- Duty to inform the doctor
- Doctor’s duty of documentation
- Confidentiality of the doctor
- Patient’s obligation to cooperate
- Patient’s duty to pay