Are Public and Private Health Insurance Companies Going Web 2.0? - A Complete Inventory Count in Germany

The Internet is increasingly used as a source for information and knowledge. Even in the field of healthcare, information is widely available in the Internet. In the context of healthcare management, two general questions are of interest: (1) which information or content is provided? (2) How is it provided and by whom? As sickness funds play a highly relevant role in the German healthcare system, we conduct an exploratory survey to provide first answers to these questions. We perform a third party web assessment by doing a complete inventory count of the German sickness funds landscape. Hence, all 238 private and public health insurances were analyzed according to their website. Our descriptive results address researchers as well as practitioners. Moreover, our study provides a foundation for further research by raising first categories that can be used for a theoretical explanatory model.