If you plan to start a back fitness class, a relaxation course or a Pilates course in January, the questions arrive in the fall: Will my health insurer pay for part of it? Is the course certified? How many sessions do I have to attend? And how do I sign up? The interest is there: in 2024, Germany's statutory health insurers supported around 1.9 million enrollments in individual courses for health promotion and prevention (Präventionsbericht 2025). For yoga and Pilates studios, physiotherapy practices, gyms and freelance instructors, the start of the year is therefore a season you can plan for – provided your website explains the schedule and the subsidy so that nobody has to call first and nobody is promised something only the insurer can decide. This article explains what lies behind the subsidy under Section 20 of Book V of the German Social Code (SGB V), why “certified” only belongs on the page together with a course ID, how to maintain a 2027 course schedule as a collection and what a sign-up form with a course selection looks like. Services on prescription are a different topic, covered in our article on prescriptions and co-payments in physiotherapy.
What lies behind the subsidy
The legal basis is Section 20 SGB V. Under it, each health insurer provides in its statutes for benefits in primary prevention and health promotion (Section 20(1) SGB V).
The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds, the GKV-Spitzenverband, sets uniform fields of action and criteria for these benefits; it also determines the requirements and a uniform procedure for certifying the offers (Section 20(2) SGB V). An insurer can provide a behavioral prevention course if that course is certified (Section 20(5) SGB V). The details are set out in the association's prevention guide, the Leitfaden Prävention, and the checks are carried out for the health insurers by the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention, the central testing body for prevention (Kriterien zur Zertifizierung, GKV-Spitzenverband). For your website, this leads to one principle: the subsidy is neither a discount from your business nor a fixed amount. It is a benefit from the insurer your participants belong to, and it requires a certified course.
The figures show how widespread these courses are. In 2024, 1,890,295 enrollments in individual prevention courses were recorded, about 17 percent more than in the previous year (Präventionsbericht 2025). 73 percent of enrollments were in in-person courses and 27 percent in online formats; courses on physical activity accounted for 63 percent of enrollments and courses on stress management for 31 percent (Präventionsbericht 2025). More than 120,000 offers are currently certified (GKV-Spitzenverband). Insured people find them on their health insurer's website and can contact the providers directly from there (Präventionsbericht 2025). Anyone who comes across your course there and wants to know more will look for your website next – and should find the same details on it as in the insurer's course listing.
The sentence that holds up
A course is certified, not the studio
Certification covers course concepts in combination with the qualification of the course instructor (Leitfaden Prävention).
At the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention, only one instructor can be entered per course – courses spanning several fields of action are the exception – and the course receives a unique course ID (Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention). Certification is limited to three years and can then be renewed (Leitfaden Prävention). A Pilates course with a particular instructor on Tuesday evenings can therefore be certified, while a new weekend course may only be called certified once it has passed its own review. Writing “certified” is a statement about a review by a third party. Falsely claiming that a service has been confirmed, endorsed or approved by a public or private body is one of the commercial practices that are always prohibited towards consumers in Germany (Annex to Section 3(3) UWG, No. 4). The prevention guide also lists misleading or false advertising of the service among the serious violations that can lead to course certifications being revoked (Leitfaden Prävention). For each course, the page should therefore show:
- The course title worded exactly as in the certification, so people can find it again in their insurer's course listing
- The course ID and the name of the instructor the course is certified with
- Start date, weekday, time, number of sessions and length of each session
- Location and room; for online courses, the format: live at fixed times or self-paced
- The course fee as a total price, without deducting any possible subsidy
- The target group and a note that exclusion criteria are discussed before the first session
- The date until which the certification is valid, so the page does not keep saying “certified” afterwards
No blanket label on the home page
Maintaining the 2027 schedule as a collection
A course schedule changes every six months, but its shape stays the same: title, start date, weekday, sessions, instructor, course ID, price. That is what collections in XICflow are for.
A collection is a set of similar data records; you define once which fields a record has and then fill in as many entries as you like (XICflow documentation). Field types are available for text, text area, rich text, number, yes/no, image, URL, date and select. Every entry is either “Draft” or “Published”, and only published entries appear on the website (XICflow documentation). That fits a course provider's calendar: the courses for January 2027 can be entered as drafts now and switched live as soon as room, instructor and certification are settled. If you want to start in January, your schedule should be online in November – that leaves time for sign-ups and for questions to the insurer. How collections work in general, from team pages to menus, is explained in our article on maintaining content as a collection.
Scroll table sideways
| Field in the “Courses” collection | Field type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Course title | Text | Heading of the card, worded as in the certification |
| Course start | Date | First session, shown on the detail page as a row in the fact list |
| Weekday and time | Text | “Monday, 6:00 to 7:00 p.m.” – readable without a calendar |
| Sessions | Number | Number of sessions, for example 8 or 10 |
| Minutes per session | Number | Length as it will later appear on the attendance certificate |
| Instructor | Text | Name of the person the course is certified with |
| Course ID | Text | ID from the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention; stays empty as long as the course is not certified |
| Certified | Yes/No | Appears on the detail page as a yes or no |
| Places | Select | “available”, “few left” or “fully booked” |
| Course fee | Text | Total price in euros, without deducting a subsidy |
The collection goes on the page through the “CMS list” block: you choose the collection, a heading, a grid or list display and the number of columns. With “Create detail pages per entry” switched on in the collection, every published course gets its own subpage, which its card links to (XICflow documentation). That page has room for course content, target group and the steps for the attendance certificate. For single dates such as an open information evening about the new program, the “Events” block is a useful addition: it shows events with date, place and registration and emits the Event markup for search engines. The settings of the CMS list are described in the overview of blocks and in the chapter on content, media and blog. The demos “Puls Fitness” and “Physiopraxis Nord” show how a studio or practice website can be structured as a whole.
Sessions, group, format: what the guide requires
To make sure the details on your website match the certification, it is worth looking at the criteria for process quality.
Courses generally comprise at least eight sessions that build on each other, each lasting at least 45 minutes, usually once a week (Leitfaden Prävention); they should not exceed twelve sessions of 90 minutes (Leitfaden Prävention). Groups generally have six to a maximum of 15 people (Leitfaden Prävention). Compact formats spread the same total scope as weekly courses over at least two days (Leitfaden Prävention). Online courses have additional criteria: for a live online seminar, attending at least 80 percent of the sessions is required for reimbursement, while a self-paced online course must be completed in full, that is 100 percent (Kriterien zur Zertifizierung, GKV-Spitzenverband). Whatever applies to your course belongs in the schedule as a stated detail – the following six points cover it.
Start and rhythm
First session, weekday and last date. Holidays without a session belong in the schedule, not in a footnote.
Sessions and length
Number of sessions and minutes per session, worded as they will later appear on the attendance certificate.
Places
How many people the course takes and whether places are still available. A “few places left” note is only honest if someone keeps it up to date.
Location or format
Address and room for in-person courses; for online courses, whether they run live at fixed times or self-paced, because the attendance rule depends on it.
Instructor
The name of the person the course is certified with and their qualification in one sentence. Substitutes are announced.
Course ID and validity
The ID from the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention and the date until which the certification is valid.
Explaining the subsidy without promising it
There is no uniform rule among the statutory health insurers for reimbursing course fees; each insurer sets the type and amount of the subsidy in its statutes (Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention).
There is also an upper limit: funding is restricted to a maximum of two courses per insured person and calendar year (Leitfaden Prävention). Anyone who has already attended two funded courses this year should check with their own insurer before signing up. Your website does not have to answer these questions for every individual; it only has to point to them correctly. The insurers' course listings show insured people the course title, description, course fee, personal share, instructor, scope and dates, among other things (Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention) – your page should not contradict them. In general, insurers only fund courses that were attended regularly (Leitfaden Prävention); what that means in detail for an in-person course is stated by each insurer.
Scroll table sideways
| Instead of | Better | Why |
|---|---|---|
| “Your health insurer pays for your course.” | “Depending on your health insurer, part or all of the course fee may be reimbursed.” | Each insurer sets the type and amount of the subsidy in its statutes. |
| “Free thanks to your insurer's subsidy” | “Course fee: [amount] euros. Your health insurer may pay a subsidy.” | Participants usually pay the fee themselves first and apply for the subsidy afterwards. |
| “Certified courses” above the whole program | “Certified by the Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention, course ID [ID]” on the individual course | What is certified is the individual course with its instructor. |
| “Reimbursement assured” | “Apply for the subsidy with your insurer after the course, using the attendance certificate.” | The insurer decides on the basis of the details on the form. |
| “Discount for members” | “Same course fee for all participants” | The participation fee must be the same for all participants in a course. |
Mention the prevention recommendation
The attendance certificate in three steps
Since January 1, 2026, using the model attendance certificates has been mandatory (Leitfaden Prävention).
The form has two parts: the provider fills in part 1, the attendance certificate (Musterformular Teilnahmebescheinigung, GKV-Spitzenverband), and the insured person fills in part 2, the application for a subsidy, and forwards both to their health insurer (Musterformular Teilnahmebescheinigung, GKV-Spitzenverband). Part 1 includes the course title, the period, how many of how many sessions the person attended and how long a session lasts, along with the instructor and the course ID. The provider's signature can be replaced by a digital signature (Leitfaden Prävention). Explaining this process in three steps on the course page answers a typical question after the course before anyone asks it.
- Sign up: choose the course in the form, wait for the confirmation and pay the course fee. If you are unsure whether a subsidy is possible, ask your own insurer beforehand.
- Attend: come regularly. Online courses follow the attendance rule of their format; for in-person courses, the insurer states its conditions.
- Submit the certificate: after the last session, the provider issues part 1, participants complete part 2 and submit the form to their insurer, depending on the insurer also digitally through an app or customer portal.
Two notes belong directly below. First: the certificate confirms what actually took place. False information on the attendance certificate can lead to repayment claims and to all of the provider's courses being excluded from further funding (Leitfaden Prävention). Second: if a substitute takes over individual sessions, it makes sense to note this on the certificate (Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention). Both are better stated on the course page in advance than in an email afterwards to participants who expected a different process.
Keep membership and course clearly apart
For gyms and sports clubs, this section matters most.
Insurers may neither cover nor subsidize membership fees at sports clubs, gyms and similar facilities, and current, past or future membership fees may not be offset against course fees (Leitfaden Prävention). Courses that are tied to an existing or future membership, that are designed to run indefinitely, or whose provider has an interest in selling related products such as dietary supplements or sports equipment are not eligible for funding either (Leitfaden Prävention). And the participation fee set in the certification application must be the same for all participants in a course (Leitfaden Prävention). On the website, this means the certified back course appears as an offer of its own with its own price, open to non-members, and not as a perk within a membership plan. How trial sessions and memberships are presented separately is described in our article on gym websites.
For the price, general pricing law applies: anyone offering services to consumers with prices must state the total prices (Section 3(1) PAngV). The course fee therefore appears on the page as the full amount. A worked example “minus subsidy” is risky because you do not know the amount for the individual person. For compact formats, the costs of the course and the costs of accommodation, meals, visitor's tax and other services must be shown separately (Leitfaden Prävention). If you plan a course weekend with an overnight stay, the page therefore shows the course costs and the accommodation separately and, if both can only be booked together, also states the total price.
Sign-up: a form with a course selection
A form that asks the right questions is all you need for sign-ups.
With the “Form” block in XICflow, you set the label and field type yourself and decide which fields are required; the options are single-line text, email, phone, number, dropdown, multi-line text, checkbox and consent (XICflow documentation). A form can hold up to 40 custom fields (XICflow documentation); a course sign-up needs seven. A dropdown first shows your placeholder, such as “Please choose”, and below it the answers you entered – that is the “Choose a course” list. You maintain the options yourself: when a course is full, remove it from the list and set it to “fully booked” in the collection. If the contract for the paid course is concluded via form and email, it is a distance contract; whether a right of withdrawal applies and how you inform participants about it is something to settle legally before the form goes live (Section 312g BGB).
- Name and email as required fields, phone optional for short-notice cancellations
- Choose a course as a dropdown with title, weekday and start date, for example “Healthy Back · Mon 6 p.m. · from Jan 11, 2027”
- Attendance certificate needed as a checkbox, so the certificate is ready after the course
- Message as a multi-line field for organizational questions
- Consent to the processing of the details as a required field, with a link to the privacy policy
A prevention course touches on health; the sign-up does not have to. Health data belongs to the special categories of personal data whose processing is prohibited in principle unless an exception applies, such as explicit consent (Art. 9 GDPR). Questions about back pain, diagnoses or medication therefore do not belong in the web form; the instructor clarifies exclusion criteria in person before the first session. More on drawing that line is in our article on websites for medical practices. Every sign-up lands in your website's requests inbox; extra fields appear there with their labels and in a column of their own in the CSV export, which covers up to 5,000 entries (XICflow documentation). That lets you pull a participant list per course when the course starts. Important: only a published website accepts requests, so publish again after adding the form. The details are in the chapter on requests and team, and further ideas for sign-ups are in our article on promoting events.
Course descriptions without promises of healing
Course descriptions easily slip into promises: “gets rid of back pain”, “cures sleep problems”.
Germany's Therapeutic Products Advertising Act (HWG) also applies to procedures and treatments insofar as the advertising claim refers to eliminating or relieving illnesses, ailments or pathological complaints (Section 1 HWG). It is misleading, among other things, to attribute effects to a procedure that it does not have or to falsely create the impression that success can be expected with certainty (Section 3 HWG). For certified courses, the prevention guide adds a rule that ties health statements to the current state of knowledge. So describe what happens in the course – exercises, background knowledge, ways into everyday life – and who it is meant for, instead of naming a result nobody can promise. The same matter-of-fact approach carries a practice's other insurance topics, such as the bonus booklet at the dental practice. Ready-made page types for services, team and contact come with the templates in XICflow.
Health statements reflect the current state of knowledge and can be substantiated; promises of healing are not permitted.