Using the GKV health report correctly

How do I get the statutory health insurer's health report — and what do I do with it?

Note: based on German law. Statutory health insurers prepare an anonymized health report for companies on request — as a workplace health promotion service (§ 20b SGB V), with no legal entitlement for the company. A minimum number of insured employees is required, which each insurer sets itself for data protection reasons (e.g., 50). The report shows sick-leave rates, diagnosis groups, and age structure — a key data source for your WHP annual plan.

Structure of a typical GKV health report

Section	Content	Use in WHP	GDPR note
Sick-leave rate	Sick days per 100 insured employees, year-over-year comparison, industry comparison	Benchmark basis for the leadership presentation: “Where do we stand?”	Aggregated — no conclusions about individuals possible
Diagnosis groups (ICD-10)	Top diagnoses by sick days and frequency (e.g., M = musculoskeletal, F = mental health)	Derive focus areas for measures: high M rate → ergonomics program	Observe the insurer's anonymization rules — small case numbers are not shown in the report
Age structure analysis	Distribution of sick days by age group	Identify at-risk cohorts for targeted prevention	No personal reference — pure age-group data
Short-term vs. long-term sick leave	Sick leave by duration (<3 days, 3–6 days, >6 weeks)	Long-term sick leave signals a need for reintegration management (BEM); with many short-term absences, check causes in the work environment	Fully anonymized
Company benchmark	Your sick-leave rate vs. industry, region, GKV average	Prioritization aid: Where is action genuinely needed?	External reference values — no company-specific reference

What is the GKV health report — and who gets it?

Note: this section describes German law. The GKV health report is an anonymized analysis of your employees' sick-leave data that the statutory health insurer prepares on request. The legal basis is § 20b SGB V: as part of workplace health promotion, statutory health insurers assess the health situation in the company — the report is a core instrument of that. It does not create a legal entitlement for the company.

There is no statutory minimum. Each insurer decides for data protection reasons how many of its insured persons must work in the company — at Mobil Krankenkasse and IKK Südwest it is 50. What counts is not the total workforce, but only the employees insured with that particular insurer. So in a 120-person company with three different main insurers, it's possible that only one insurer reaches its minimum and delivers a report — the others don't.

Do you have employees across multiple insurers? Then request a report from each insurer separately. Most large German statutory insurers (AOK, Barmer, TK, DAK, BKK network) deliver the report routinely. Smaller insurers do so on explicit request. You don't need a WHP contract or an ongoing cooperation agreement with the insurer — the report is independent of that.

How do you request the report?

Your point of contact is always the corporate client advisor or the workplace health promotion contact at the respective insurer, not the service desks for private individuals. Most large statutory insurers have their own “business” portal or a corporate hotline.

What you provide: company name, company number (Betriebsnummer, issued by the Federal Employment Agency), period (usually the past calendar year), and the name of the person responsible for WHP. Some insurers also provide quarterly data on request.

Processing takes a few weeks depending on the insurer, and annual data is only available once the previous year's sick-leave data is complete. So request the report early in the year for the previous year and ask your insurer for the delivery date — that way you'll have the data in time for planning measures.

AOK: “AOK-Business” corporate portal or direct email to the corporate client advisor
Barmer: “Workplace Health Management” portal, contact via corporate client service
Techniker Krankenkasse: TK health management team, online form for companies
DAK-Gesundheit: corporate client area with WHP service offering
BKK network: directly through the respective company's BKK insurer

How do you read the sick-leave data correctly?

Always in comparison: a common mistake when reading the report is looking at your own sick-leave rate in isolation. A rate of 5.2% sounds high — but if the industry average is 6.1%, your company is actually below-average affected. The comparison is what matters.

The three most important comparison dimensions are: (1) time trend — has your sick-leave rate increased over the past three years? (2) industry — how does your value compare to the insurer's industry average? (3) region — are there regional special factors (e.g., flu waves, local particularities)?

Sick days and sick-leave cases tell you different things: many short cases (1–3 days) can point to strain in the work environment, leadership issues, or waves of infection. Few long cases (>6 weeks) signal serious illness — and, under German law, a need for reintegration management per § 167 (2) SGB IX. Both require different measures.

What do the diagnosis groups reveal about suitable WHP measures?

Diagnosis groups in ICD-10 format are the strategic core of the report. They show which conditions cause the most sick days. Among DAK-Gesundheit's insured persons in 2025, respiratory diseases (J, 378 sick days per 100 insured), mental disorders (F, 366), and musculoskeletal disorders (M, 347) led the ranking (DAK health report, press release of January 20, 2026); infectious diseases (A/B) also play a role.

The implication is direct: if the M group dominates → prioritize the ergonomics and movement focus area. High F values → leadership training, psychological risk assessment (under German law, § 5 ArbSchG), stress prevention. High J values in winter → vaccination campaigns, indoor air quality.

For your steering committee, the GKV guideline recommends (analysis phase, ch. 6.3.3): the results from the health report are evaluated jointly in the steering committee — not by HR alone. Involving employees or their elected representatives is also a funding condition of the insurers (ch. 6.2.2), and the works council has a co-determination right on rules for health protection (§ 87 (1) no. 7 BetrVG).

What may you do with the data — and what not?

Note: this section describes German/EU data protection law. The GKV health report contains exclusively anonymized data — that's the condition under which the insurer is allowed to release it (Art. 9 GDPR protects health data as a special category of personal data). You may use the data for workplace measure planning and leadership presentations.

What you may not do: draw conclusions about individuals, or try to combine the data with other internal sources in a way that makes individuals identifiable. Storing it in unsecured systems or passing it to external service providers without a data processing agreement (per Art. 28 GDPR) is also not permitted.

Practical rule for the steering committee presentation: only show aggregate data at the department level if the department is large enough that no one can be identified. Smaller units can effectively be traced back to individuals — that counts as a data protection violation, even if you don't know the diagnoses yourself.

Why should you combine the GKV report with your own HR data?

The GKV report alone doesn't paint a complete picture — it only covers the employees insured with that one insurer and only the sick-leave certificates it received. So combine it with your own anonymized HR analyses: aggregated sick-leave rate (all insurers), reintegration-management case statistics, age structure analysis.

This combination — GKV data plus internal HR aggregates — is a solid analysis basis, as described by the GKV guideline for the analysis phase (ch. 6.3.3). According to the guideline, a situation analysis is a condition for insurers to support a workplace health promotion project under § 20b SGB V (ch. 6.2.2) — being willing to create it during the process is enough to get started.

If you want to combine several GKV reports (from different insurers): that's unproblematic from a data protection perspective, as long as the data remains aggregated at the company level. A cross-insurer picture emerges when you combine the anonymized rates weighted by the number of insured persons per insurer — simply adding up rates gives a false picture.

Quick check

What's your company's workplace-health maturity?

Your maturity level shows how far your measures already sit within a structured health promotion process. Under German tax law, such a process is one way for measures to be tax-free up to the allowance of €600 per employee per year (§ 3 No. 34 EStG) — only your tax advisor can confirm this. Answer in about 7 minutes, no sign-up.

Start maturity check (about 7 min.)

Related measures & topics

Key takeaways

Note: based on German law. Above a minimum number of insured employees that each insurer sets itself (e.g., 50), insurers prepare a health report on request — there is no legal entitlement.
Request it early in the year for the previous year and ask for the delivery date.
The diagnosis groups (ICD-10) show which focus areas you should prioritize.
Always compare: your sick-leave rate alone says little — the industry comparison is what decides.
Steering by an internal committee, involvement of employees or the works council, and a situation analysis are funding conditions under the GKV guideline (ch. 6.2.2).
Use only anonymized data — conclusions about individuals violate Art. 9 GDPR.

Frequently asked questions

Starting at how many employees do I get a GKV health report?+

There is no statutory threshold. Each insurer sets a minimum number of its insured persons in the company (50 at Mobil Krankenkasse and IKK Südwest) — the total number of employees doesn't count. For example, with 80 employees, 60 insured with insurer A and 20 with insurer B, only insurer A delivers a report at a threshold of 50.

Does the GKV health report cost anything?+

Insurers prepare the report as part of their workplace health promotion services (§ 20b SGB V); there is no statutory obligation to deliver it and no rule on costs. Ask your insurer about the conditions. You don't need a contract or an ongoing cooperation agreement with the insurer.

How current is the data in the report?+

Annual reports are only available once the previous year's sick-leave data is complete — exactly when depends on the insurer. Ask for the delivery date when you request it. Some insurers offer quarterly reports — ask your contact at the insurer.

May the works council view the GKV health report?+

Yes — and it should. Under the GKV guideline (ch. 6.2.2), involving employees or their elected representatives is a condition for insurers to support measures. The works council has no separate right to view your contract with the insurer, but it does have co-determination rights over measures derived from the results (§ 87 BetrVG).

What do I do if my insurer doesn't deliver a report?+

Call the corporate client advisor — not the general service number. There is no legal entitlement to the report: insurers provide services under § 20b SGB V, and companies cannot sue for them. If your company doesn't reach an insurer's minimum, ask whether several insurers can evaluate jointly — the GKV guideline provides for cooperation projects of several insurers (ch. 6.2.2) — or analyze sick-leave rates from your own HR data.

Analyze WHP data — without Excel chaos

EasyWHP analyzes your HR data in aggregate — sick-leave rate, age structure, turnover, and insurer distribution — and records which data sources you use for the analysis, such as your insurer's health report. EasyWHP does not store diagnoses.

Try EasyWHP for free Go to the WHP maturity check

Sources

Last updated: 2026-06-24. Not legal or tax advice — have your specific case reviewed by a professional.

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