Dental News - German health insurers could scrap payment for fixed orthodontic appliances

Dental Tribune International

Thu. 17. January 2019

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BERLIN, Germany: Health insurers have called into question whether they will continue to pay for treatment with fixed appliances after a report on orthodontic treatment commissioned by the government found there was no evidence to support claims that they provide long-term dental health benefits to patients.

The German National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds told the newspaper Welt am Sonntag that it was now considering taking further steps that would enable health insurers to change their policies on financing the treatment. Insurers currently pay out about €1.1 billion annually for fixed appliances.

“We can’t say whether orthodontic treatment has any of the middle or long-term benefits that are expected of it,” said Ann Marini, a spokeswoman for the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds.

The comments follow the publication of a government-commissioned meta-analysis conducted by the IGES Institute, which concluded that there was no evidence to support claims of long-term dental health benefits of treatment with fixed orthodontic appliances.

“As [a] whole, the studies into diagnostic and therapeutic orthodontic measures allow no conclusion to be drawn about a patient-relevant benefit,” the study found. It also concluded that no long-term studies had collected data on the impact of fixed appliances as an orthodontic treatment on tooth loss or secondary diseases.

The findings have been downplayed by the Federal Ministry of Health, with Health Minister Jens Spahn commenting that he did not doubt the necessity of orthodontic treatment. While acknowledging that the study found no evidence of long-term dental health benefits from fixed appliances, the health ministry pointed out that the findings did not rule them out.

According to Marini, the health insurers’ federation is now deliberating filing a request for examination of evidence of any dental health benefits of fixed orthodontic appliances by the Federal Joint Committee. Based on its findings, the committee, Germany’s national body for the regulation of medication and health treatment, could then limit or scrap the amount insurers pay for such orthodontic treatment.

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