“Unfortunately, you are calling outside our phone hours” – many people looking for a therapy place hear this announcement. They call one practice after another, reach the answering machine and try again the next morning. For psychotherapists who treat patients with statutory health insurance, phone availability is therefore regulated: with a full care mandate they must ensure 200 minutes per week of personal availability, in slots of at least 25 minutes (G-BA, Psychotherapie-Richtlinie). The website is where callers look for these hours first – and often the only place where, next to the hours, they also learn what happens when no place is free right now. This article explains what the rules require, why phone hours, consultation hours and therapy sessions belong on the page separately, how a practice explains the 116117 number and the appointment service, how it states its waiting list honestly, and what a request form looks like that does not ask about symptoms or diagnoses.
What the 200 minutes require
The rule is set out in Section 1(8) of the psychotherapy directive of the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA), which governs how psychotherapy is provided as a benefit of statutory health insurance.
It requires personal phone availability for scheduling appointments at defined times that are to be published. With a full care mandate, this means 200 minutes per week in slots of at least 25 minutes; with a half care mandate, 100 minutes (G-BA, Psychotherapie-Richtlinie). The call may be answered by the psychotherapist or by practice staff. The National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) describes the duty on its psychotherapy topic page: psychotherapists have to tell their regional association (KV) at which times they offer the total of 200 minutes of availability per week (KBV). The rule therefore applies to the practitioners in statutory care, not to practices in general.
The same page contains three sentences that matter more for the website than they first appear to. The hours should also be stated on the practice's answering machine. Health insurers receive the data via the KV so they can inform their members. And how availability is organized is up to the practice – staff, call forwarding, cooperation – but what counts is that the call is answered in person (KBV). The psychotherapy agreement adds to this: under Section 27, the regional associations regularly provide health insurers with a directory that contains, besides names and addresses, the phone availability times and the phone number (Psychotherapie-Vereinbarung). Your phone hours are therefore not only on your own website but also in the directory health insurers use to inform their members. A callback form can catch requests outside these hours, but it does not replace a line that is staffed in person; how to use one sensibly is covered in the article callback instead of the hold queue.
Scroll table sideways
| Situation | Phone availability | What the website shows |
|---|---|---|
| Full care mandate | 200 minutes per week, slots of at least 25 minutes | Every phone window with weekday and time, separate from consultation hours |
| Half care mandate | 100 minutes per week, slots of at least 25 minutes | The same layout with fewer time windows |
| Phone duty by staff or call forwarding | Counts as long as the call is answered in person | The hours; who answers is secondary for callers |
| Private practice without a statutory license | No requirement from the psychotherapy directive | Its own phone hours and a clear “private practice” notice |
One note for three places
Phone hours are not consultation hours
Many practice websites have a single block headed “office hours”. In a psychotherapy practice this is misleading, because there are three kinds of time that callers need to tell apart. Phone hours are for scheduling appointments.
The psychotherapeutic consultation (Sprechstunde) is the first meeting, in which the practitioner clarifies whether treatment is needed and which kind. Therapy sessions, finally, are booked appointments and have no place on the website as times. The consultation has its own figures: with a full care mandate, as a rule at least 100 minutes per week are made available, with a half care mandate at least 50 minutes; the regional associations can set different rules depending on the local care situation (G-BA, Psychotherapie-Richtlinie). A consultation lasts at least 25 minutes and can take place at most six times per case of illness for adults, up to 150 minutes in total; for children and adolescents it is up to ten appointments with 250 minutes combined (KBV). Whether the practice offers fixed consultation times or gives appointments is its own decision, which it reports to its KV.
Phone hours
When the phone is staffed in person to arrange appointments. With weekday and time, word for word the same as the report to the KV and the answering machine message.
Psychotherapeutic consultation
Whether there are fixed hours or appointments are given, and how to get one. Plus one sentence on expectations: the consultation clarifies the need, it is not yet a therapy place.
Therapy sessions
Do not belong on the page as clock times. What helps instead is a short explanation of what happens after the consultation and which steps come before therapy starts.
The path into treatment, no referral needed
Many callers do not know that they need no referral for psychotherapy. The KBV puts it plainly: a referral is generally not required (KBV). At the same time, the path into treatment leads through the consultation.
Before trial sessions or acute treatment can begin, a consultation of at least 50 minutes is a prerequisite (G-BA, Psychotherapie-Richtlinie); there are exceptions, for example after a hospital stay for a mental illness. A website that explains this process in a few steps and in plain language answers the most common question on the phone before it is asked. Technical terms such as “trial sessions” or “PTV 11” can stay if their meaning is explained next to them. Practices that create separate subpages for children and adolescents, adults and groups should link them to each other; why that helps readers and search engines alike is explained in the article on internal links between service pages.
- Consultation: a first meeting to clarify the situation, without a referral and without an application. It ends with a findings report and a recommendation on form PTV 11.
- Acute treatment, if recommended: up to 24 units of 25 minutes each per case of illness, at most 600 minutes in total (KBV). No application to the health insurer is needed.
- Trial sessions: at least two, up to four for adults and up to six for children and adolescents (KBV). They clarify whether the working relationship fits.
- Application to the health insurer: short-term therapy of 12 to 24 hours or long-term therapy from 25 hours (KBV).
116117 and the appointment service
Not every practice can offer every caller a timely appointment. That makes it all the more important to say where people can turn next.
The appointment service centers of the regional associations also arrange appointments with psychotherapists – for the consultation, for acute treatment and for trial sessions. According to the KBV, they are obliged to offer an appointment within four weeks, and within two weeks for acute treatment (KBV). Both deadlines are set out in Section 75(1a) of Book V of the German Social Code (SGB V), which also requires the appointment service centers to be reachable 24 hours a day, seven days a week under a nationwide uniform phone number (SGB V). That number is 116117, supplemented online by eterminservice.de (KBV). The patient service sums it up for patients: within one week, 116117 has to arrange an appointment that is at most four weeks in the future (Patientenservice 116117). An appointment for trial sessions or acute treatment requires a prior consultation: form PTV 11 then carries a referral code with which patients can book an appointment at another practice via 116117 (Patientenservice 116117). No code is needed for the consultation itself.
One sentence that saves calls
State the waiting time honestly
How long people wait for psychotherapy is disputed.
The Federal Chamber of Psychotherapists (BPtK) analyzed KBV billing data for all people with statutory insurance who had their first consultation in the first quarter of 2019: from the first consultation to the start of therapy, an average of 142.4 days passed (BPtK 2022). The umbrella association of the statutory health insurers (GKV-Spitzenverband) arrived at far shorter times with its own survey; the chamber considers that data unreliable. For an individual practice, neither average helps, because it says nothing about its own waiting list. A nationwide figure on the practice website only raises an expectation that the practice can neither confirm nor refute.
What actually helps callers is the current status in one sentence, at the top of the page and with a date. An announcement bar – a slim colored strip above the content – works well for this: “Waiting list currently closed. Consultation appointments by phone arrangement. Status: [date]”. A waiting time in weeks belongs on the page only if the practice updates it regularly. A figure that was correct in spring is wrong information in the fall – and it generates exactly the calls the bar is meant to prevent. It also matters what the practice does with the waiting list: whether it gets in touch when a place becomes free, whether callers should check back at regular intervals and whether the list is closed at times.
Scroll table sideways
| Wording on the page | Why it causes trouble | What works instead |
|---|---|---|
| “Appointments available at short notice” | Outdated within days and raises hopes that are disappointed on the phone | “Please ask for consultation appointments by phone. Status: [date]” |
| “Waiting time only a few weeks” | Sounds like a promise the practice cannot control | Status of the waiting list without a promised deadline, with a date |
| “No capacity” with nothing else | Leaves callers without a next step | A pointer to 116117 and eterminservice.de |
| “We call everyone back” | Hard to keep when the waiting list is full | Say when the practice gets in touch, for example only when a place becomes free |
| Waiting list status only on the answering machine | Website readers only learn it after calling | The same sentence in the announcement bar and in the message |
Crises: what must be visible immediately
A practice website is not a crisis service, and nobody reads a form around the clock. That is exactly why every page with phone hours and a request form needs a clearly separated notice about who helps outside those hours.
In life-threatening situations, that is the emergency medical service under the emergency number 112 (Patientenservice 116117). For illnesses that cannot wait until the next day, the on-call medical service helps outside consultation hours, also under 116117 (Patientenservice 116117). Anyone in emotional crisis who needs someone to talk to can reach TelefonSeelsorge, the German telephone counseling service, at 0800 1110111, 0800 1110222 or 116 123; according to the service, the numbers are reachable around the clock, including Sundays and public holidays, and calls are free of charge (TelefonSeelsorge). These routes belong in a separate, calmly designed box – not only in the footer and not in a collapsible section that nobody opens.
The form is not an emergency channel
A form without questions about symptoms
For appointment requests, the same rule applies in psychotherapy as in any practice, only with more weight.
Under Article 4(15) of the General Data Protection Regulation, health data are personal data related to the physical or mental health of a natural person, including the provision of health care services, which reveal information about their health status (GDPR). Under Article 9(1), processing them is prohibited in principle unless one of the exceptions applies (GDPR). Even stating which complaints someone is seeking a therapy place for falls under this. Because the definition expressly includes the provision of health care services, even the request to a psychotherapy practice may itself count as health data – one more reason not to ask for anything beyond that. A form that asks for symptoms, diagnoses or medication collects such data through a channel that is not meant for it. The solution is simple: the form only asks what the practice needs to call back or offer a consultation appointment; everything about content belongs in the consultation. The general rules for appointment requests in the health professions are covered in medical practice website: compliant and patient-friendly. For psychotherapy, a few fields are added.
- Name and a callback number; the email address only if the practice also replies by email
- Insurance as a dropdown: statutory, private, civil service allowance (Beihilfe), self-pay
- Reason as a dropdown: consultation appointment, joining the waiting list, organizational question
- Age group as a dropdown if the practice treats children, adolescents and adults – without a date of birth
- Preferred callback time: morning, afternoon or any time
- No free-text field for complaints, diagnoses or medication; at most one field “Organizational notes” with exactly this label
- A consent checkbox with a link to the privacy policy
- One sentence above the submit button: when the practice replies and that the form is not an emergency channel
In XICflow, this form is built with the “Form” block. You can choose single-line text, email, phone, number, dropdown, multi-line text, checkbox and consent, and a form can hold up to 40 custom fields (XICflow documentation). For a psychotherapy practice the lower limit matters more than the upper one: a handful of fields is enough. Fields left empty are not transmitted. Requests arrive collected in the requests inbox, where the team works through them with a status and sees what has been handled. How this works and which roles exist in the team is described in the documentation under requests and team.
Private practice: different rules, same questions
The 200-minute rule, the report to the KV and the appointment service concern care for people with statutory insurance. A private practice without a statutory license is not bound by them.
Callers ask the same questions, though: when can I reach someone, how long will it take, and what does it cost? That is why the home page of a private practice needs an unmistakable sentence that billing via statutory health insurance is not possible, and who the practice is open to: privately insured patients, civil servants with Beihilfe, self-payers. People with statutory insurance often ask private practices about reimbursement. The legal basis is Section 13(3) SGB V: if the health insurer could not provide an urgent service in time, it reimburses the costs of the service the patient obtained, insofar as it was necessary (SGB V). For services by psychotherapists, reimbursement additionally requires that they meet the conditions of Section 95c SGB V (SGB V). Whether this applies in an individual case is up to the insurer. The website therefore explains that this route exists and recommends talking to the insurer before treatment begins; a promise does not belong on the page.
The professional title deserves care as well. Under Section 1 of the Psychotherapists Act, only those who hold a state license or are otherwise authorized to practice may call themselves “Psychotherapeutin” or “Psychotherapeut”; beyond these cases, only physicians as well as psychological psychotherapists and child and adolescent psychotherapists may use the title (PsychThG). Anyone working under a non-medical practitioner permit (Heilpraktikererlaubnis) describes exactly that on the website and avoids terms that suggest a state license. For advertising and the legal notice, the rules of the health professions apply, which the medical practice article linked above summarizes.
Building the practice page in XICflow
With XICflow, this page is built from blocks that already exist. For the times, use the “Opening hours” block twice: once headed “Phone hours for appointments”, once headed “Psychotherapeutic consultation”.
Each block has a heading, a note below the table and one row per day; the settings are described in the documentation under blocks: grids and cards. One detail matters: a day without times appears as “Closed” (XICflow documentation). In the phone hours block, therefore, enter only the days on which the phone is staffed. Otherwise a day without a phone window shows “Closed” even though the practice treats patients that day – and callers conclude that nobody is there. The note field below the table is a good place for the 116117 sentence.
The phone band shows the number in large type and as a dial link, plus a field for availability and a link to the form. For the waiting list status there is the announcement block, which the documentation describes as a slim bar for an announcement with an optional link; both blocks are explained on the page blocks: conversion and CTA. What a finished practice website looks like is shown by the Physiopraxis Nord demo among the demo websites: a different specialty, but the same task of showing hours, routes and requests without detours. How a practice page explains deadlines and processes with a status date is also shown in the article on the physiotherapy practice website. What the builder offers beyond that, from your own domain to hosting, is listed under features. Before publishing, this checklist helps:
- Phone hours on the website, in the report to the KV and on the answering machine are identical.
- Phone hours and consultation hours are in separate blocks; therapy times are not shown at all.
- The phone hours block lists only days with times.
- The path into treatment is explained in a few steps, including the sentence “No referral needed”.
- 116117 and eterminservice.de appear next to the phone hours and in the message.
- The announcement bar states the waiting list status with a date and without a promised deadline.
- The emergency numbers are visible above the form, including in the mobile view.
- The form asks only for organizational details and includes a consent checkbox.
- A private practice states on its home page that billing via statutory health insurance is not possible.
Being reachable means: correct in one place