Appointment service; support in finding a prompt doctor's appointment

The Appointment Service Center helps those insured with statutory health insurance to make an appointment with a doctor or psychotherapist as quickly as possible.

Terminservice der 116117 - Arzttermine online vereinbaren
Do you have statutory health insurance and are looking for an appointment with a registered doctor or psychotherapist? With the 116117 appointment service, you can make, view and, if necessary, cancel appointments quickly and easily around the clock.

Insured persons covered by statutory health insurance are entitled to appropriate and prompt specialist care. The associations of statutory health insurance physicians have therefore set up appointment service centers. The appointment service center must arrange a treatment appointment for insured persons with a referral to a specialist within one week with a registered specialist within a reasonable distance of their place of residence. The waiting time between the (first) call and the agreed appointment should be a maximum of five weeks, with the exception of all routine and preventive examinations and minor illnesses. No referral is required for an appointment with an ophthalmologist or gynecologist. If the appointment service cannot offer an appointment with a specialist in private practice, it must arrange an outpatient treatment appointment in an approved hospital. There is no entitlement to treatment appointments with certain specialists or at preferred times.

The Act for Faster Appointments and Better Care (Terminservice- und Versorgungsgesetz - TSVG), which came into force in May 2019, further expanded the activities of the Appointment Service Center; it now also arranges appointments with GPs and paediatricians, supports patients in their search for a GP or paediatrician who can provide long-term care and has recently also started arranging appointments for video consultations. Furthermore, in acute cases, it must arrange immediate medical care at the medically appropriate level of care on the basis of a standardized, nationwide initial assessment procedure. No referral is required in these cases either.

The appointment service can be reached 24 hours a day, seven days a week on the nationwide standardized telephone number 116117.