Vienna Mayor's Plan to Settle Cross-State Patient Costs Falls Short on Wait Times

Vienna Mayor Michael Ludwig has put forward a proposal for direct billing of cross-state patients as an interim solution until a final agreement is reached. Currently, Vienna receives a lump sum for treating patients from other Austrian states due to its specialized hospitals. This arrangement, regulated by a five-year financial equalization agreement, is set to last until 2028.

Ludwig argues that the current system's costs have been "outpaced by reality," resulting in 610 million euros in additional expenses for Vienna. His proposal suggests immediately ending the lump-sum system. Instead, each state would receive funds proportional to its population size. Vienna would forgo the extra money it currently receives for its supra-regional care mandate. At year's end, actual costs for cross-state patients would be settled directly between states, with each bearing the cost for its residents regardless of where they received treatment.

However, the article contends that Ludwig's plan fails to address the fundamental problem: the long waiting times for surgeries for Vienna's own population. While 610 million euros is a significant sum, it represents a small fraction of Austria's roughly 50 billion euro health budget. Vienna treats 40 percent of all out-of-state patients in Austria, with about 80 percent of those coming from Lower Austria and 12 percent from Burgenland. In contrast, Lower Austria treats only 13 percent of its own residents who are out-of-state patients. Consequently, out-of-state patients now constitute 20.4 percent of all patients treated in Vienna's hospitals, a figure significantly higher than in other states. This influx strains Vienna's capacity, especially amid ongoing nursing staff shortages, leading to increasingly longer surgery wait times for Viennese residents.

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The costs for guest patients have been outpaced by reality, with additional costs of 610 million euros for Vienna.