Fees/Therapy costs

Please note that our invoicing is handled by a billing agency, see below.

Consultation-only appointments are always in addition to the normal follow-up appointments. Should follow-up work arise, consultation appointments are automatically converted into normal follow-up appointments and charged accordingly.

Laboratory costs, nutritional supplements and naturopathic preparations (homeopathy) are not included in the fees.

• Laboratory tests: the Walsh test is usually the first test carried out (initially approx. €150–200, depending on the case), repeated every 8–16 weeks (€30–70, depending on the case). This is followed by the hair mineral analysis (approx. €150), which is repeated every 4–6 months.
• Nutritional supplements: please plan a budget for nutritional supplements (€70–150 per month) and naturopathic remedies (€50–100 for 2 months), depending on the case.

Laboratory services are always invoiced directly between the laboratory and the patient.

The Walsh test must be invoiced via our practice, as we collect samples in order to minimise shipping costs for the patient (otherwise individual costs of $200 would apply).

I work with the metabolic analysis (hair mineral analysis) of the hormone laboratory Verisana (€149.45).

We are happy to issue a prescription for tests. Whether your private health (supplementary) insurance covers these costs varies greatly. However, you should be prepared for the possibility that your insurance will not cover the costs of the tests I order.

The same applies to the reimbursement of nutritional supplements.

Reimbursement of my fees by private health insurers and private supplementary insurers is possible within the scope of the individual contractual benefits, although usually not at the full rate, at least as far as the initial case history is concerned.

Private supplementary insurance and Beihilfe

Supplementary insurers and Beihilfe (the German civil-servant allowance) in particular only reimburse at a minimum rate, so the patient will probably have to bear part of the fee for the initial consultation themselves.

In some federal states, Beihilfe excludes the services of naturopaths (Heilpraktiker) entirely; in other cases, Beihilfe only pays for so-called analogous billing at its discretion (if the budget allows).

Full private health insurance

Full private health insurers reimburse my invoices at least in part. As a rule, reimbursement by full private health insurers is more generous than for those with supplementary insurance.

Billing agency for privately insured, Beihilfe and supplementary insured patients

In order to significantly improve the conditions for more generous reimbursement of my invoices by private health insurers and supplementary insurers, I work with a medical billing agency (PAS Dr. Hammerl).

As is customary, invoicing is based on direct and analogous treatment codes of the fee schedule for naturopaths (GebüH).

If an invoice is rejected, the billing agency deals with the health insurer concerned and mediates.

However, reimbursement cannot be guaranteed in any case.

It is also NOT possible to design the invoice according to the patient’s wishes (e.g. splitting appointments).

Our fees apply regardless of any reimbursement by health insurers or Beihilfe. Before treatment, please enquire about the individual conditions of reimbursement (different rates within the fee schedule for naturopaths, exclusion of individual therapy methods, exclusion of analogous billing etc.).

Please be aware that therapy with us should primarily be regarded as a self-pay service. If you make reimbursement of your invoices by your private insurer or Beihilfe a condition of therapy, therapy with us will not be satisfactory for you. After the first appointment, we will be glad to explain in detail how naturopathic billing works correctly and legally, and why your insurer may only cover a small portion of your invoices.

Statutory health insurance

Statutory health insurers do not reimburse my fees.

We offer our patients a payment term of 10 days for invoices. Should the patient wish for a payment term of 30 days, this is possible via our medical billing agency. Please indicate this when booking your appointment.

For this service, we charge 3% on top of the invoice amount.

Please note that, as a matter of principle, we only give treatment recommendations in a personal conversation during an appointment.

While there is a certain amount of room for questions of understanding, should our plans etc. not be clearly worded, we do not answer e-mails or spontaneous telephone calls concerning treatment.

The reasons for this are as follows:

• We are no longer able to keep up with answering e-mails in between.
• Even seemingly short questions always lead to background considerations on the part of the therapist. The therapist then has to consult with the patient again, or important information about the patient’s condition is missed. This affects the quality of the treatment, and the therapist may breach their duty of care.
• Most questions are answered by the documents available to the patient. They also describe how to proceed if something is not tolerated.
• Treatment enquiries usually require follow-up work. We have to fit this carefully into our daily schedule, as otherwise the patients who were scheduled for that day would miss out.

We allocate appointments within our practice hours, see Appointments/Contact.

In some cases, we reserve the right to charge a cancellation fee of 100%.

A cancellation fee is payable if:

• appointments are cancelled at short notice, i.e. less than 48 hours before the appointment. The reason for the short-notice cancellation is irrelevant (e.g. illness, illness of children, no childcare, traffic jams, holiday, business trip).
• appointments are ended prematurely at the patient’s request. Here, too, the reason is irrelevant.
• appointments cannot take place because the patient has not submitted their questionnaires for the case history. Without the information in the patient questionnaires, treatment cannot begin, even if laboratory tests are already available.
• appointments cannot take place because the patient ordered laboratory tests that are not handled by our practice too late. The patient is responsible for rescheduling appointments in good time if it becomes apparent that laboratory results will not be available by the agreed appointment.

In the event of illness, it is generally possible to convert in-person appointments into telephone appointments.

If the patient arrives late, this is at the patient’s expense. There is no entitlement to have the missed time added to the end of the appointment.

Should we cancel an appointment at short notice, miss an appointment or double-book, the replacement appointment is free of charge.

Our general terms and conditions (in German) apply.