Overview
- Essen suspended planned patient co-pays of up to €267 per emergency run and €62 per patient transport after an urgent decision.
- Gladbeck approved a revised fee statute from 1 January 2026 yet told residents they will not receive bills while responses from cost carriers are pending.
- Bavaria stated it has no plans to introduce patient charges for rescue transports and says its financing model differs from North Rhine-Westphalia.
- Health insurers dispute paying for deployments without hospital transport—about 25–30% of calls—and for undercoverage, creating municipal shortfalls estimated at about €250 million in NRW.
- A federal emergency-care reform is slated to reach the cabinet in early 2026 and is expected to decouple reimbursement from whether a patient is transported.