Civil servants’ insurer FAMK at the end – economy

The Free Doctor and Medicine Fund (FAMK) in Frankfurt can no longer continue. According to SZ information, it will transfer its contracts and assets to Inter Krankenversicherung in Mannheim and then dissolve it.

After two years of losses, the Frankfurt company no longer has any equity and has to be absorbed by Inter. In 2022 the loss was 8.4 million euros, in 2023 a further 3.4 million euros. The background to the imbalance is a dispute with the state aid authorities of the state of Hesse.

Inter wants to continue the contracts unchanged. The company insures around 22,000 civil servants, candidates and their family members. Most members are officers from the Hessian police and professional fire departments.

The two private health insurers have applied to Bafin for a so-called full transfer of assets from FAMK to Inter. All contracts and all assets – especially the aging provisions to which customers are entitled – will be transferred to Inter. The FAMK will then be dissolved.

If Bafin approves, the merger should be completed retroactively to January 1, 2024. Like Inter, FAMK is a mutual insurance association. It has no shareholders but belongs to its policyholders. According to company circles, the members’ representatives welcomed the plan. There is no decision yet, Bafin has to give its OK first. When making its decision, the supervisory authority must ensure that the interests of the insured are protected by both companies.

The two insurers have already been working closely together. Their board members are identical, and Inter already runs parts of the FAMK administration.

The company fell victim to a complicated legal situation. Until the end of September 2023, it had a unique business model: it was a mixture of statutory health insurance and private health insurance. It also collected aid payments from state aid agencies for its members.

But the once good cooperation with the benefit agencies has recently given way to a heated dispute over the correct payment for some medical services.

The regional council in Kassel is the aid agency for Hessian civil servants. Currently, almost 100,000 applications for aid are said to be in dispute. It’s about a “mid double-digit million amount,” said an insider. The money was missing from the FAMK’s coffers, which meant its downfall.