German Health Minister Nina Warken brought together representatives of ten key associations and institutions from across the healthcare sector at the Federal Ministry of Health on July 7, 2026, to discuss measures to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy in the healthcare system.
The meeting marked the beginning of a process aimed at systematically eliminating unnecessary administrative requirements without compromising the quality of healthcare.
For many years, there have been repeated calls to create greater freedom by reducing unnecessary and excessive bureaucracy. We are not content with mere declarations of intent and have already pursued this approach in our most recent legislative proposals, consistently including concrete measures to reduce bureaucracy. We will continue along this path and, in doing so, will focus in particular on the specific proposals of those who deal with excessive documentation requirements on a daily basis.
Nina Warken, Federal Health Minister (Germany)
The Federal Ministry of Health is making the reduction of bureaucracy a priority in order to relieve all areas of the healthcare system of unnecessary requirements relating to verification, reporting, documentation, administrative procedures, eligibility for benefits and billing.
The Assistive Devices Modernisation and Bureaucracy Reduction Act will include effective measures to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy and will help implement the outcomes of the high-level talks on reducing bureaucracy.
Implementation steps taken so far:
- The Act on Expanding Powers and Reducing Bureaucracy in Nursing Care, which came into force on 1 January 2026, introduced important measures to reduce bureaucracy in the nursing care sector. These include a reduced documentation burden, better coordination between inspections carried out by the Medical Service and those conducted by nursing home supervisory authorities, more flexible deadlines for quality inspections, streamlined application procedures and simplified forms.
- The Act on the Further Development of Pharmacy Services, which came into force on 2 July 2026, includes measures to reduce bureaucracy, strengthen the attractiveness of the pharmacy profession and ensure nationwide access to pharmacy services. Key measures include excluding clawbacks on purely formal grounds where no reimbursement is due, greater flexibility in pharmacy staffing, and simplified documentation requirements.
- With the draft Law on Data and Digital Innovation in Healthcare (GeDIG), the Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) has presented another key initiative aimed at reducing unnecessary bureaucracy. According to current estimates, the annual compliance burden for businesses will be reduced by approximately €445 million. This primarily concerns costs arising from bureaucratic reporting requirements. Significant reductions can be achieved through three measures in particular: the consistent use of electronic communication, the introduction of electronic referrals, and the implementation of interfaces in practice management systems for billing-related data.
