Consultation
We want you to know what we are doing
We believe it is only natural that we inform you – before you have any treatment – in detail about the nature and extent of your disease and all the possible treatments, not only treatment with the Gamma Knife. You benefit from our many years of experience as radiosurgeons and operating neurosurgeons.
Our consultation should inform you about the method of treatment, its success rate, the risk of side-effects and possible alternative treatments. After the consultation, you should have sufficient information to be able to make the important decision to be treated using the Gamma Knife.
The first thing is the indication
Most often the patient’s first contact with our centre is by telephone. Our medically trained staff determine whether all the necessary medical documentation and findings from imaging procedures are available. To avoid unnecessary travelling to and from our centre, you can send us these documents for appraisal. If treatment with the Gamma Knife appears to be indicated, we will contact you. We will then determine how to proceed. Of course all this is also possible in a face-to-face consultation in Krefeld if we have all the documents to hand.
Further preparations for Gamma Knife treatment always include a detailed face-to-face interview on our premises at which the patient receives more detailed information from the doctor who will perform the treatment.
We always concentrate on you, the patient. For this reason we take enough time to clarify all the issues that are important to you and your family. Some questions are almost always asked, and so we have answered the most frequent ones below.
For Patients who are covered by private medical insurance, the costs of the radiosurgical treatment are calculated according to the “schedule of medical fees” (officially called the Gebührenordnung für Ärzte, GOÄ) and reimbursed by private health insurance companies on this basis.
For patients with statutory medical insurance (known as GKV in Germany), a contract has been concluded between the Gamma Knife Centre Krefeld and the insurer DAK (Deutsche Angestellten - Krankenkasse) for integrated patient care, under which persons insured with the DAK are now the first group of patients with statutory health insurance in Germany with the option of Gamma Knife radiosurgery if they need it, without having to go through time-consuming application procedures. The health insurer TK (Techniker Krankenkasse) has also signed up to this contract, which means that Gamma Knife radiosurgery is now available to their customers should they need it.
Persons insured with other statutory health insurers in Germany are still not entitled to have the costs of out-patient treatment reimbursed. Although radiosurgery has been used successfully in Germany since 1994 and around the world since the 1970s, so far it has not been added to the catalogue of medical benefits available under the statutory insurance system. Therefore patients still have to apply in advance to their health insurance company to have the costs of out-patient radiosurgical treatment covered. In recent years the health insurers have agreed to cover the costs in more than 3,000 cases.
We can help you to apply for your health insurance to over the costs of treatment. Following the consultation and determination of the indications, we will give you a doctor’s letter and a cost estimate. You then submit these two documents to your health insurer. As soon as you receive written confirmation from the insurance company, you contact us again to make an appointment for treatment. Should your application be rejected, we recommend that you still contact us so that we can discuss how to proceed.
If it is medically necessary, it is possible for the patient to be admitted to hospital for treatment as an in-patient. There are beds available for us in the neurosurgical department of the Helios hospital in Krefeld.
Side-effects depend very much on the individual patient and the individual disease, the localisation of the diseased tissue and the necessary dose of radiation. For this reason it is not possible to give a general answer. Of course the preparatory consultation(s) will go into detail about possible side-effects in the individual patient.
