Mainz – November 05, 2026 -- Germany's Federal Guild of Hearing Acousticians (biha) warns that the draft Hilfsmittelmodernisierungs- und Bürokratieabbaugesetz (HiB) could push small and mid-sized hearing care businesses into insolvency by delaying their payments for weeks or months.
Draft law gives statutory insurers control over all hearing system fittings
The bill would introduce stronger oversight of every hearing system provision, carried out by the statutory health insurers (GKV). According to biha, insurers would have to approve fittings even where the patient already holds a specialist medical prescription.
The guild argues that no criteria exist by which insurer staff could assess decisions made by patients, specialists and acousticians. Administrators could therefore leave approvals or rejections unprocessed until such criteria exist. biha adds that nobody can legitimately set them, because the insured person's entitlement to benefits in kind is anchored in law. Insurers also hold no approval rights when a patient opts for a fitting with a private co-payment.
Unpaid fittings leave businesses with insolvency as the only option
If neither the GKV nor the patient pays for completed work over weeks or months, businesses have no recourse but to file for insolvency, biha says. President Eberhard Schmidt called the draft's demands absurd.
The guild notes that acousticians already supply extensive documentation. Before a fitting, patients must read and sign numerous documents, including a declaration that they were informed of their right to a fitting at no cost to them.
Insurer survey found 90% of patients satisfied with hearing care
A 2019 survey by the GKV umbrella association (GKV-Spitzenverband) found that about 90% of insured patients were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with their care. Satisfaction did not depend on whether they chose a free fitting or paid a private co-payment.
In the 2025 reporting year, statutory insurers recorded about 32 million aid provision cases, with or without additional costs to the patient. Around 7.1 million of these involved additional costs, including nearly half a million hearing system fittings.