Privatliquidation is the plain case of getting paid. The pharmacy performs a service, the person who received it pays for it, and the pharmacy issues an invoice in its own name for that service. Nobody approves it beforehand and nobody reimburses it afterwards. That is the whole difference from the reimbursed side of the business, and the difference reaches a good deal further than the money.
Where a Krankenkasse pays, the price, the documentation and the eligibility rules are all set outside the pharmacy. The Packungsfixum is fixed by law, and a pharmazeutische Dienstleistung is paid from the pDL fund at a defined fee against a defined protocol. Where the customer pays, the pharmacy decides what it offers and what it charges, and it carries the commercial risk along with the risk that an invoice is never settled. Services in the apothekenübliche Dienstleistung category are typically the ones invoiced this way.
The invoice has to satisfy ordinary German invoicing law. It carries the full name and address of the pharmacy and of the customer, the Steuernummer or USt-IdNr, a sequential invoice number, the issue date, the date on which the service was performed, a description specific enough to identify what was done, the amount, and the VAT treatment shown correctly on the document.
That last point is where pharmacies most want a quick answer, and it is the one place this entry will not give one. Whether a particular service is taxable at the standard rate, taxable at a reduced rate, or exempt as a heilberufliche Leistung depends on what exactly was performed and on the position the tax authorities currently take. The treatment belongs with the pharmacy Steuerberater before the first invoice is written rather than after the first audit.
The GOÄ is often mentioned in the same breath and is worth separating clearly. It is the fee schedule a physician uses when billing a private patient. A pharmacy is not a physician and does not invoice under it. Where a physician is involved in a service, that physician liquidates their own part under the GOÄ, and the pharmacy invoices only the part the pharmacy itself carried out.
This glossary entry is general information about German pharmacy law and practice. It is not legal advice. For binding guidance on your own pharmacy, contact your Landesapothekerkammer.
