Claiming medical expenses from the krankenkasse

Quick question. Just got a bill through from the doctors. Says on the bottom I can claim 90% of the costs back from my Krankenkasse (SBK). Do I send them the bill and they swipe 10% of the cost out of my next paycheck? Or do I pay the doctor directly and then chase up the Krankenkasse for the 90%?

Cheers

Start chasing the Krankenkasse now!!! You never know how long it will take, or if they will cover any of it. But in the mean time you should pay your bill, and get full reimbursed from your Kasse.

I have Huk Coburg insurance and as soon as I get the bill from the doctor, I send it to Huk and, within a week, I have the payment in my account and I can then pay the doctor(if it's a large amount of money, which, for my teeth, is usual).

Carm is right, chase the insurance company now. If you already have Huk Coburg, don't worry, they're quick.

Cheers for the info. I don't see any problem getting re-imbursed as SBK covers up to 12 sessions of the treatment I had and I only had 3 sessions. Do I have to write the krankenkasse some waffle (like my bank details) or just send a copy of the bill? Excuse my ignorance but I don't generally get 'ill' unless I don't want to go to work that day.

By the way, if anyone is ever desperate enought to try a stupid hippy 'treatment' like acupuncture for a sports injury, don't bother. Go to a physio instead. My excuse was I was in a lot of pain, frustrated and willing to give anything a go.

@BT

I started a spreadsheet that had the same info as the forms they give you and filled it in with my name, my address, my insurance number, and my konto and bankleitzahl numbers at the top. Then in a chart at the bottom, the date of service, type of service and the amount. Then make a copy of your bill(if your doctor didn't already supply one) and attach that to the back of the printout of the spreadsheet. That's all I mail in and it works perfectly. I keep a copy for myself and when the insurance company sends the letter saying they've transferred the money to my account(and how much), I pay the doctor. Takes 10 minutes.

Blimey, that's very efficient. I'll gave that a try - thanks very much.

Yes, and then(even more efficiently) you can have pages for each claim you submit. If you want, I can send you a copy of my stupid little spreadsheet(it even totals the amount column).

I've just signed on with TK krankenkasse. From previous posts I see that I still have to pay to doctors bill...and get the money back from the kk. How about cost of drugs, hugely expensive here it seems? Is it the same format of keeping a receipt and sending it to kk for reimbursement.

Why do I see people in both the doctors and the pharmacy giving their kk card to be swiped...if they still have to pay the cash? Cheers, Jol

@jolontour -
Yes, drugs are also covered by the insurance. The pharmacist usually writes the amount right on the prescription and gives it back to you and gives you a receipt. You just mail these to your insurance company.

If you are on public health insurance, you may have to pay a nominal fee per quarter - I think it's like 10€ or something. When you are on public, you have an insurance card that is swiped and the insurance companies pay the doctors/pharmacies directly. There is a whole other thread out there about this - in fact, there's probably more than one - just search.

Thanks for that...I was looking thru the other threads but they seemed to be more about private insurance...I'll have another look. Mine is definitely public, and I've got the impression that I would have to pay cash at doctors and pharmacists and then claim back, even though they may swipe my card. Oh dear, am I confused??

Umm...you've just raised a "am I a complete idiot?" alarm in my brain...since when are prescription drugs covered by the public KK? As far as I know, you have to pay for prescription drugs on your own if you're not a pensioner or disabled in some way. At the very least I've never been asked to give my KK card at the pharmacists and I've never turned in any prescription receipts to be reimbursed.

I hope that I haven't missed something major here...

@ Knusper, you do have to pay for prescription drugs on public insurance. Well, the contribution fee, anyway. But if you earn below a certain amount (not sure how much - ask KK) you can collect up the receipts and send them to your KK to get money back.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm sure that if you are on Arbeitslosengeld II, or a pensioner on a fixed income, or disabled or something you don't have to pay or you have to pay less.

Unfortunately I earn too much...what is that they say...too little to live, too much to die...;-)

Though dying in Germany's rather expensive from what I've heard! ;-)