Primary care physicians
Upon your enrollment, you must choose a practitioner for the entire duration of the quarter. You can change your practitioner at any time, but due to the shortage of doctors in Germany, it may be difficult to find a new one.
Though most German physicians speak good English, we recommend that you contact the embassy of your country to find out which physicians speak your language. Please note that some physicians ONLY accept patients who are covered under the private health insurance scheme. It is important that you check this information before going to a medical office.
If you are covered by the public scheme, you can use the app called “11.61.17.app” to find a practitioner who will accept you.
Important: doctors’ offices are rarely open on Wednesday and Friday afternoon.
General practitioners
If you are covered by the public health insurance scheme, you do not have to pay for your consultations (directly paid by the health insurance fund to the physician).
Specialists
Under the public scheme, you often need to see your primary care physician first before going to a specialist. This step is not required if you are covered under a private insurance scheme. You may have to wait a long time before getting an appointment (several weeks). As public and private healthcare plans do not cover all medical specialties: we advise you to check with your health insurance fund before requesting certain types of consultations. If a specialty is not covered by your insurance plan, we recommend that you find a “regular” doctor who also provides medical services for the specialty in question: in that case, the consultation will be reimbursed.
