Regional differences, repeated use, and costs of emergency medical services in Germany.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Little is known about regional differences regarding the utilization and costs of emergency medical services (EMS) in Germany. Evidence on characteristics of repeated use of EMS is also scarce.

Objectives

To compare German federal states regarding the utilization and costs of EMS and to analyze characteristics of repeated EMS use.

Materials and methods

We used BARMER health insurance data on more than 1.4 million German EMS cases in 2022. We estimated EMS use rates (per 1000 inhabitants) and median reimbursements and costs by EMS type (ground transport with/without emergency physician (EP); helicopter emergency medical services), hospitalization status, and federal state. We applied Poisson regression to estimate incidence rate ratios (IRRs) with 95% confid

SUBMITTER: Roessler M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12504377 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature