[Extended medical services to the inpatient sector--"medical services on individual demand" in the hospital. General legal conditions, 10 basic rules, and practical examples].

Today, extended medical services--previously known in the context of ambulant healthcare provision or plastic surgery only--are increasingly being offered by hospitals. Hospitals have started to offer these services with good reason: in times of budgetary restraints they want to exploit this emerging new market due to economic necessities and they try to meet rising demands from patients. It is not easy to draw the line between special (extended) medical services and general hospital services. These different categories need to be kept apart, though. Special contracts for these specific extended medical services have to be entered into by hospital and patient in any case where the hospital wants to charge him later on. Different preconditions are to be considered with patients insured by statutory health insurance companies and privately insured patients. The price of extended medical services must be carefully calculated and, in particular, has to be related to the price charged from patients insured via statutory health insurance. Attention should also be paid to other aspects such as taxes, liability law, and hospital subsidisation. The present article presents some basic rules for offering extra medical services in a hospital.