Needs, application procedure and barriers
A central function of the German Pension Insurance is to promote and maintain the work ability of insured persons by financing rehabilitation measures in specialized rehabilitation facilities with a usual duration of three to four weeks. Furthermore, the German Pension Insurance is to provide prevention services for insured persons with initial health impairments. These prevention services include about three to five full-time days in specialized health care provision (usually rehabilitation facilities) and three to six months extra-occupational group services. Both prevention and rehabilitation services require an application by the insured person to the German Pension Insurance. The prevention application can be filled out online by the patient in a few minutes. The application for rehabilitation is more time-consuming and includes extensive application documents that must be filled out by the patient and physician. Within the study, the application procedure will be simplified by providing the necessary forms, reducing the number of forms required and replacing the doctor’s medical report with a short form.The German Federal law to strengthen prevention and rehabilitation in working life (