Bonus
Up to €600 a year — for good habits.
Each fund rewards check-ups, vaccinations, and a healthy lifestyle differently. With the right pick you capture the maximum.
How do GKV bonus programs work?
You collect points or stamps in a bonus booklet (paper or app) for health-promoting activities — check-ups, sports, vaccinations, dental visits. At year end you submit the booklet and receive — depending on your fund — cash, in-kind rewards (fitness tracker, travel pharmacy kit), or a contribution discount. Every family member runs their own booklet, so a family of four can quadruple the payout. Important: only verifiable activities count, so collect the receipts throughout the year.
The legal basis for bonus programs is § 65a SGB V — it allows health funds to reward members for health-promoting behaviour. The programs are voluntary and open to all GKV members regardless of tariff or membership duration. You can often start logging activities from the first day of membership — some funds even allow retroactive submission for the past 12 months. Sign-up is online or via app, usually at no extra cost.
Practically the collection system runs either via a points account or a stamp booklet. Point-based programs (e.g. TK BonusPLUS) score every activity with a point amount that translates into a payout tier. Stamp-based programs (often AOK and some BKKs) require a minimum number of stamps (e.g. 6 for standard bonus, 12 for maximum). Read the system carefully before picking a fund — different mechanisms can lead to substantially different payouts for the same behaviour.
Preventive courses and sports
Preventive courses under § 20 SGB V are a central part of most bonus programs. They cover movement (yoga, pilates, back gymnastics), nutrition (weight reduction, diabetes prevention), stress management (autogenic training, mindfulness) and addiction prevention (smoking cessation). The fund typically reimburses 75–100 % of course fees up to €100–200 per course, often 2 courses a year. Plus, you collect bonus points for participation — a double reward many insured underestimate.
Sports at a qualified club or gym also yields bonus points. Generally accepted are memberships at sports clubs with DOSB recognition, fitness studios with a quality seal (e.g. "Vereinte Vitalität"), or specific online sports programs with proof of activity. Common is 30–80 bonus points per year, equivalent to €50–150. The membership certificate is requested annually from the sports provider — some funds accept SEPA direct debits as proof. If you are a member anyway, take the bonus — that’s essentially "money on the street".
Activity-based programs via fitness trackers or smartphone apps are gaining traction. TK FitClub, AOK Fit-Bonus, BARMER 100 % Bewegung — these programs pull activities directly from Apple Health, Google Fit or Garmin Connect and award points automatically. Typical thresholds: 7,000 steps a day, 150 minutes of moderate activity per week, or 75 minutes of intense sport. Points accrue monthly; some funds even pay daily bonuses for particularly active days. Anyone with a modern lifestyle of inherent activity collects max bonuses passively in the background.
Preventive exams and vaccinations
Preventive exams are the most reliable bonus source. Standard rewarded: U-exams for children (U1 to U9, J1, J2 — up to 10 stamps over childhood), the adult Check-up 35 every 3 years, dental check-ups twice yearly (keep the bonus booklet at the dentist), skin cancer screening every 2 years from 35, colon cancer screening from 50, gynaecological cancer screening yearly, urological screening from 45, eye-doctor screening from 60. Each exam pays €10–30; cumulatively this can reach several hundred euros a year.
Vaccinations per STIKO recommendation are rewarded by virtually all funds. Standard immunisation (tetanus, diphtheria, polio) is normally documented by the practice; the bonus booklet then needs a doctor’s stamp. Travel vaccinations (Hepatitis A/B, rabies, yellow fever) are often not in the standard bonus program but reimbursable as statutory benefits — some funds award additional bonus points. The annual flu shot (especially from age 60) yields 10–20 bonus points.
Pregnancy care is a particularly bonus-rich program: the ten standard exams during pregnancy, plus antenatal class, plus midwife consultation — together this can add €100–200 of bonus. Some funds additionally award a pregnancy welcome bonus or in-kind gifts like a baby monitor, water bottle or maternity pass folder. Prospective parents should contact the fund early in pregnancy to use specific programs — sign-up windows are sometimes short.
App-based bonus programs
Most health funds have integrated their bonus programs into mobile apps over the past 5 years. Benefits: automatic activity tracking, fast receipt submission via photo, real-time point status, family accounts in one app. TK App, AOK Bonus-App, BARMER Bonus-App and HKK Bonus-App are the established solutions. Functionality is similar; differences exist in fitness tracker integration, receipt processing speed and family functionality. Apps are free and easy to use.
Practical app benefits: you can photograph and submit a receipt right after the doctor’s visit — no loss through paper misplacement. The app shows your current point balance and which activities are still missing for the next bonus. For families all members can track their own balances, enabling family-level optimisation. Push notifications remind you of preventive appointments, leading to more point entries.
Privacy aspect: apps process sensitive health data and must comply with German and European data protection rules. Activity data from fitness trackers is generally pseudonymised — but you do reveal your movement patterns to your fund. Anyone wanting to avoid this should pick an app without automatic activity tracking or prefer manual bonus entries. Read the app privacy notice carefully and use opt-out options for detailed movement profiles where possible.
Cash benefits: up to €600 a year
Market leaders in 2026 pay up to €600/year (TK BonusPLUS, BARMER Vorteilsprogramm, hkk Bonus); average funds pay €100–250. Don’t just look at the maximum payout — check the minimum point threshold: some funds only pay above 300 points, others start at 6 stamps. Families with children, regular athletes, and people who do all their preventive care reach the maximum most easily. When you switch funds, open bonus booklets often expire, so settle the running year before you cancel.
Tax-wise bonuses are tax-free up to €150 per person per year under § 3 Nr. 57 EStG and do not reduce your special-expense deduction (i.e. your tax saving from health insurance contributions). Larger payouts only count as a contribution refund — and therefore reduce the deductible amount — if they reward pure membership or general good behaviour with no specific activity. Activity-based bonuses (sports, screenings) stay fully tax-free. When in doubt, check the certificate your fund issues for your tax return.
An effective strategy for big collectors: families with optimal fund choice can collect €1,500–2,000 a year in bonuses — a sport-affine four-person family with consistent prevention reaches that easily. As cashback this is essentially a 15–25 % contribution reduction — significant relief in times of rising GKV rates. At the next fund choice, calculate your family’s bonus-program potential concretely, not just the rate.
Choose a fund by bonus program
When choosing a fund, compare not just the supplementary rate but also the bonus program. A fund with 2.2 % rate and €600 bonus program can be cheaper overall than one with 1.4 % and €200 bonus. Concretely: at €4,500 gross income, 0.8 percentage points difference is about €18/month = €216/year. If the more expensive fund offers €400 more bonus, you net €184 in savings — the "cheaper" fund would have left you with less. The balance depends on your willingness to actively use the bonus program.
A sensible comparison method: list your actual healthcare usage from the past 12 months — preventive care, sports, dental hygiene, vaccinations. Calculate for each potential fund how much bonus you’d earn with these activities. Then compare net contribution result (rate minus bonus). This method often delivers surprising results: sometimes a seemingly expensive fund is the most economical because its bonus program fits your lifestyle particularly well.
Concrete recommendations for 2026: families with children often benefit from funds with strong U-exam bonuses and pregnancy programs — TK, BARMER and some BKKs are strong here. Active sportspeople and "quantified self" enthusiasts do better with funds rewarding fitness-tracker data — TK Fit App, AOK Fit-Bonus. Prevention-oriented insured over 50 should choose funds rewarding skin, colon and cancer screenings particularly well. There is no universal recommendation — individual need decides.
Combination with optional tariffs
Bonus programs and optional tariffs can often be combined — the effects don’t simply add up but can amplify or cancel each other. Example: a premium-refund tariff pays you for not using benefits, while preventive exams are explicitly excluded and simultaneously yield bonus points. So you can both receive a premium refund and collect bonus points for a preventive exam — a double advantage. With a deductible tariff this doesn’t apply: bonus points from hospitalisations can often reduce the deductible bonus.
A particularly favourable combination: GP tariff plus active bonus program. The GP tariff yields €60–120 in cashback, the bonus program €200–600. Since prevention is coordinated through the GP anyway, the dual benefit is seamless. Another strong combination: care-level bonus for caring relatives plus family bonus for children. Some funds offer special bonus packages for families with care-dependent members that run on top of the regular program.
Avoid these conflicts: premium-refund tariff plus chronic illness — the tariff forces avoidance of in-kind benefits, which is risky when chronically ill. Deductible tariff plus several family hospital visits — the deductible bonus is consumed, and the bonus program can’t compensate. Read the conditions of any tariff-bonus combo carefully — some tariffs exclude certain bonus points or vice versa, leading to unpleasant surprises at year-end.