Development of goals for work-related health promotion in the German statutory health insurance

Background. The German statutory health insurance (Gesetzliche Krankenversicherung, GKV) plays an important role in health promotion in Germany, spending (sic) 4 billion annually. In recent years, the GKV has emphasized the improvement of preventive practice by establishing quality criteria and documentation rules. At present, it is working on the development of goals for health promotion and prevention. Starting at the workplace and soon to be followed in other settings goals will already be used to focus preventive activities as early as 2007. Methods. The development of goals in prevention is based on a method introduced by the Initiative Health and Work (Initiative Gesundheit und Arbeit, IGA), a common institution in two German health insurance groups and German accidence insurance. Results. The GKV has selected the reduction of mental and behavioral disorders as its main goal in work-related prevention.