Dear investors,

The German health care market is currently experiencing one of the most profound transformations in its 130-year history.

When about 25 years ago more and more private institutions took over public hospitals, the outpatient sector remained largely unaffected by this development. To this day, the outpatient sector is largely characterised by freelance physicians who provide care for the population in their own practice, either as general practitioners and family doctors or as specialists.

This situation is currently changing, three developments are essentially responsible for this:

Administrative commitments and tasks are increasing

The regulatory framework for outpatient care has been increasingly burdened with many documentation obligations, which hardly allow a doctor working alone in his own practice to meet the requirements for the medical care of his patients and the administrative obligations in equal measure.

The generation of ‘practising doctors’ says goodbye and is leaving for retirement

Since 1993, demand planning with restrictions on the number of branches has been introduced, by means of which the supply of medical services for those with statutory health insurance (90% of the German population) has been frozen and quasi rationed. At that time, before the deadline, this led to a disproportionate migration of doctors from the hospitals to general practices who are currently retiring at an equally disproportionate rate without the availability of a corresponding new generation.

Today’s generation of doctors not prepared to be self-employed

By now, approx. 2/3 of medical students are female which increases the need for employment, preferably part-time, also in the private practice sector.

The willingness to work as a self-employed freelancer is not particularly high among the next generation of doctors and continues to decline.

With this in mind, there is an increasing need for larger health care centres in which several doctors provide interdisciplinary care. However, such centres can rarely be organised by doctors alone, as they usually lack the business expertise to do so. Although the government created the legal framework as early as 2004, implementation has not yet been realised across the board.

This is an opportunity for investors to enter this market. Due to demand planning, there are always more than enough patients available, the turnover is quasi secured by law and has remained stable for decades, so the generation of synergy effects and cost management are the most important factors in achieving an acceptable return on sales. One thing is important here: medical services are exempt from trade tax and VAT.

However, the German health care system is of considerable complexity and differs fundamentally from conditions in other countries. A lack of knowledge of the interrelationships can thus quickly lead to expensive mistakes. Incidentally, it is often difficult to discuss business management issues with doctor-owners who are willing to sell, as they frequently do not know the terminology and this can repeatedly lead to misunderstandings in the negotiations.

This is where we come in    

Under the umbrella of SWK Consulting, business economists, medical and corporate lawyers as well as M&A specialists are united who have been advising the healthcare sector for years, in some cases for decades.

SWK Consulting’s managing director himself bought a private clinic after giving up a chair at a German university hospital, founded two multidisciplinary medical care centres, successfully managed this group for almost two decades, having already sold the clinic to a Swedish healthcare group in 2012, only to sell it back for one euro with deficits in 2019 after the group fell victim to a hostile takeover by a competitor, and again in 2020.  He therefore has his own practical experience in all areas of the German health care system, from public hospitals to outpatient care in independent practices, and is also familiar with the laws of successful negotiation in sales and purchase negotiations of medical facilities.

Our services

Our services range from the complete support of an acquisition process, including the procurement of suitable properties, the recruitment of medical professionals and the preparation of the necessary approval procedures, to thematically highly defined advice in individual cases.

Are you interested? Then contact us under info@swk-consulting.de or call +49-732-953570 to arrange a non-binding and free initial discussion appointment at one of our offices in Blausteinklinik or at Reutti Castle.

With best recommendations

Prof. Dr. Dr. Ralf U. Peter KCR
Managing Director SWK GmbH