Since July 2009, palliative care has been integrated as a compulsory subject in the course of medical studies into the approbation regulations for physicians. This was done by means of an according passage (which was suggested in a draft law) in the “law concerning the regulation of the need for adjunct care in hospitals” (unofficial translation), which came into force on 10 July, 2009. The law is to guarantee that “students of medicine can stand up to the expectations concerning the care for severely ill and dying patients in their later professional lives and that the comprehensive and competent care for these patients is guaranteed” (unofficial translation).

As of December 8, 2015, the so-called Hospice and Palliative Care Act (“Hospiz- und Palliativgesetz”, HPG) applies in Germany. With it, palliative care became an explicit part of the standard care provided by the social health insurance (“gesetzliche Krankenkassen”). An assemblage of measures is supposed to bring improvements: Stationary hospices are assisted by a 25 % raise of the daily rate allowed per insured person as well as by a higher subsidisation of eligible costs by health insurers (95 % instead of previous 90 %). Outpatient hospices can now profit from consideration of material costs in subsidisation, where previously only staff cost was considered. Domestic care in palliative situations can now be claimed for more than four weeks as opposed to earlier regulations. In the countryside and in structurally weak areas, the development of so-called specialised outpatient palliative care is to be promoted. Terminal care is now an explicit part of the supply mandate of the social care insurance (“Soziale Pflegeversicherung”). Nursing homes have to cooperate with outpatient hospice services. Additionally, the act enables nursing homes to offer their residents plans for individual and comprehensive medical, custodial, psychosocial and pastoral care in the final years of their lives.