Understand your medical billing and reimbursement, line by line.
AfH Abrechnung für Heilberufe GmbH explains how private and statutory healthcare billing works in Germany — from GOÄ and EBM codes to insurer reimbursement timelines — in plain language, for practitioners and patients alike.
Billing knowledge for every side of the healthcare system
We break down the terminology, timelines, and paperwork of medical billing so that practitioners, practice staff, and patients can follow what happens between a consultation and a reimbursement.
Private billing (GOÄ)
How private treatment fees are itemised, coded, and sent to patients or private insurers under the Gebührenordnung für Ärzte.
Statutory reimbursement (EBM)
An overview of how statutory health insurance billing is structured, quarterised, and settled with Kassenärztliche Vereinigungen.
Reimbursement timelines
Typical processing windows, common reasons for delay, and what a query or rejection letter usually means.
Reading a billing code
Plain-language explanations of how GOÄ and EBM position numbers are structured and what they represent.
Patient-facing guidance
Help for patients trying to understand an invoice, a reimbursement statement, or a correspondence from their insurer.
Compliance basics
General, non-binding context on documentation standards and data protection expectations around medical billing.
From consultation to reimbursement
A simplified walk-through of the typical path a healthcare bill takes in the German system.
Treatment is recorded
The practice documents the services provided and assigns the relevant GOÄ or EBM position numbers.
The statement is compiled
Line items are checked against billing rules, factors, and any required justification for the invoice or claim.
The claim is sent
The statement is issued to the patient, private insurer, or Kassenärztliche Vereinigung for processing.
Reimbursement is tracked
Payment, partial payment, or a query is returned, and any follow-up correspondence is addressed.
Written for the people who read the actual paperwork
Our articles and guides are drafted with input from healthcare administration professionals, then rewritten so that non-specialists can follow the logic without prior billing experience.
- Independent explanations, not sales material
- Terminology explained in both German and English context
- Regularly reviewed against current billing regulations
- No account, subscription, or payment required to read
The guides gave our front-desk team a shared vocabulary for talking to patients about their invoices — that alone cut down our follow-up calls.
Have a billing question we haven't covered?
Send us a message and we will point you to the relevant explanation or general guidance.