Life in Germany
Krankenkasse Bonus Programs in Germany: How to Actually Get Paid in 2026
TK and AOK Bayern compared in euros, what five other public insurers do differently, and how to get a yoga or Pilates course paid for.
Your public health insurer will pay you for things you probably already do: a checkup, a dental visit, a gym membership. It will not do this on its own. You have to join its bonus program and send in proof, activity by activity.
Our whole family is insured with TK, and I thought I knew how the bonus program worked. When I finally sat down with the app, I found that most of what we had done that year had never been submitted, and that the rules for courses and dental cleaning were quite different from what I had assumed. So I went through the official terms of TK and AOK Bayern in detail, and checked five other large insurers for the points where they clearly differ.
- Bonus points only exist once you have joined the program and submitted proof. A checkup on its own earns nothing.
- Taking the bonus as cash or as a health spending credit can double what the same activity is worth.
- Whether a yoga or Pilates course is subsidized depends on that course’s certification number (Kurs-ID), not on the type of class.
If you are employed in Germany and earn below the threshold for switching to private insurance, you are almost certainly in the public system, and your insurer is called your Krankenkasse (TK, AOK, Barmer and so on). Each Krankenkasse runs a bonus program (Bonusprogramm) that rewards preventive health activities with points or money.
This is separate from two other things people often mix up with it: subsidies for certified health courses, and support for professional dental cleaning. Both are covered below, because they are where most of the money is.
01You only get paid for what you submit
The basic flow is simple: join, do the activity, submit proof, settle. Checkups, vaccinations, sports and certified health courses all count. What surprises many people is that the insurer does not look at your medical bills and credit you automatically. Even though your doctor billed TK directly for the checkup, the bonus program only uses what you upload yourself.
I learned this the obvious way. I signed one of our children up for the bonus program, submitted nothing for two months, and the balance was exactly zero points.
My TK app in September 2026. Only the activities I submitted show up as points.
Gym or sports club: a membership confirmation (Mitgliedsbescheinigung). Tell the front desk it is for your Krankenkasse bonus program; most have a standard form.
Checkups: confirmation from the practice. Depending on the insurer, that is an uploaded receipt or confirmation, or a stamp and signature (Stempel und Unterschrift) on the insurer’s bonus form.
Dental checkup: a stamp in your dental bonus booklet (Bonusheft).
Vaccinations: the relevant page of your vaccination record (Impfpass).
Health courses: the certificate of attendance (Teilnahmebescheinigung).
Open the bonus section and confirm that you are actually registered, and note your participation period. At TK it runs for 12 months from the month you joined, so it is personal to you. At AOK Bayern it is simply the calendar year.
02Cash is not always the better choice
Most insurers let you take your bonus in one of two ways.
The first is cash, paid to your bank account and free to spend on anything.
The second is a health spending credit. It is worth more than the cash option, but you can only use it to get money back for health related spending the insurer accepts, such as gym fees, sports equipment or dental cleaning. Each insurer has its own name for it. TK calls it the health dividend (Gesundheitsdividende); in this article I use “health spending credit” for all of them.
At TK, 1,000 points are worth €10 in cash or €20 as health dividend. In my case, I collected 3,000 points without trying very hard, simply by uploading one cancer screening, one dental checkup and a year of gym membership. The settlement screen offered me €30 in cash or €60 in health dividend. If your gym costs €30 a month, the €60 option pays back two months of membership.
My TK settlement screen: the same 3,000 points as €30 cash or €60 health dividend.
1. Settle: choose the health dividend instead of cash.
2. Pay first: pay for something TK accepts, such as gym fees, sports equipment, a health course or dental cleaning.
3. Upload the receipt in the TK app or in Meine TK online.
4. Get refunded for the actual amount, up to your remaining balance. Anything TK has already paid through another benefit cannot be refunded a second time.
With my €60, a €45 receipt for sports equipment would come back in full, leaving €15 for something else. TK’s list of accepted spending includes gym and sports club fees, sports equipment, health courses, dental cleaning, and prescription glasses or contact lenses.
The settlement screen says “Diese Entscheidung gilt auch für spätere Abrechnungen und kann nicht verändert werden”: the choice also applies to later settlements in the same participation year and cannot be changed.
The health dividend expires if you do not use it within three years. Choose it when you already know you will have gym fees or dental cleaning bills in that time. If not, take the cash.
03TK and AOK Bayern pay out in different ways
Every insurer gives points per activity and converts them into money, but a point is worth a different amount at each one. To make them comparable, the tables below show euros, not points. Figures are from official documents as of October 2026.
Insurers list dozens of eligible activities, from vaccinations to sports badges. The tables only show the ones most people actually do. Your app has the full list.
TK and AOK Bayern side by side
| Item | TK | AOK Bayern |
|---|---|---|
| How you are paid | Cash or health dividend. The dividend is worth twice as much | Cash only. Withdraw any time once you reach €5 |
| A year of gym membership | €10 cash or €20 dividend. The dividend can also pay gym fees | €10 cash, once a year |
| Walking and cycling | Challenges: reach the weekly goal in 10 of 12 weeks. €10 cash or €20 dividend each, up to twice a year | €0.50 for each day you reach a goal such as 10,000 steps, up to 15 days a month and €90 a year |
| Health course (€100 example) | €80 back, you pay €20 | €100 back, you pay nothing. AOK’s own courses are free |
| Dental cleaning (€90 example) | From 18, once a year, up to €40 | From 15, twice a year, up to €50 each time |
A health course here means a certified prevention course (Präventionskurs) such as yoga, Pilates, back training or stress management. Both insurers subsidize up to two a year, with a limit of €150 per course. Dental cleaning means a professional cleaning (Professionelle Zahnreinigung, PZR) that you normally pay for yourself. The €100 and €90 prices are examples.
What one year adds up to
Take my own year: a gym membership, one dental checkup and one cancer screening.
| What you did | TK | AOK Bayern |
|---|---|---|
| Gym, dental checkup, cancer screening | €30 cash or €60 dividend | €20 cash |
| Plus walking almost every day | Two Challenges: +€20 cash or +€40 dividend | At least 15 days a month: up to +€90 |
| Total | €50 cash or €100 dividend | Up to €110 cash |
If you mainly do checkups and go to the gym, TK pays a little more. If you walk every day, AOK Bayern pays more. Either way, the gap is a few dozen euros a year. That is not a reason to switch insurers, but it is a fair measure of what you may be leaving unclaimed with the one you have.
What the other insurers do differently
All five run a bonus program and support courses and dental cleaning. These are the points where they clearly differ from TK and AOK Bayern.
- Barmer: the health spending credit (Top-Geldprämie) is worth twice the cash option: 10 cents a point in cash, 20 cents as credit. There is no fixed dental cleaning subsidy; you pay for it from this credit, and gym fees work the same way.
- DAK: one point is worth €1 in cash or €1.20 as a subsidy. Membership in a certified gym or a sports club earns 30 points, so €30 in cash. Dental cleaning is supported with up to €60 a year, including for children on family insurance.
- IKK classic: for each activity you choose cash or three times that amount as a subsidy. A gym membership earns €25 cash or €75 subsidy, but the subsidy cannot be spent on gym fees. From 18, you get one free dental cleaning a year at a DentNet partner dentist, and you can still claim €40 for a cleaning elsewhere in the same year.
- KKH: certified health courses are refunded at 100 %, up to €150 each, and dental cleaning is supported twice a year with up to €60 each time. Its health budget (Gesundheitsbudget) can pay gym fees, but the same receipt cannot be used both as bonus proof and for a budget claim.
- hkk: from 18, one free dental cleaning a year at a DentNet partner dentist. The gym bonus starts at 16 and requires at least 26 workouts a year, for €10 cash or €12.50 as subsidy, which cannot be spent on gym fees.
None of this is a reason to switch on its own. What you actually gain depends on how you live.
04Start from your habits, not from the insurer
If you walk or cycle every day, look at activity tracking first. You may earn money for something you already do.
If you go to a gym or sports club, check whether you only get a membership bonus or whether the spending credit can pay your fees. TK, Barmer, DAK and KKH allow it. AOK Bayern pays cash only, and IKK classic and hkk do not accept gym fees.
If you take health courses, check certification before you look at the subsidy amount.
If you have your teeth cleaned every year, look at the age limit and how many cleanings are covered. For professional dental cleaning alone, AOK Bayern is more generous than TK: twice a year from age 15, against once a year from 18 at TK. For teenagers aged 15 to 17 the difference is large.
If you have children, read section 08. Each child has a separate bonus account.
05Find a certified health course first, then check your insurer
A class is not subsidized just because it is yoga or Pilates. Public insurers only pay for prevention courses certified by the central testing office, the ZPP (Zentrale Prüfstelle Prävention). Certification covers both the course concept and the instructor’s qualifications, so two Pilates classes at the same studio can be treated differently.
The easiest order is find a certified course → note its Kurs-ID → check your insurer → attend.
1. Search the public ZPP course finder
If you have not chosen a course yet, start here. You can filter by postcode or city, topic, and in person or online.
The public ZPP search. The site is in German; the filters are location, format (In Präsenz or Online) and topic.
For Pilates in Munich, for example, enter München or your postcode, choose the Bewegung (exercise) topic and In Präsenz (in person), and search.
2. Open the course and note the Kurs-ID
Each course page shows the dates, location, fee and number of sessions, and a Kurs-ID starting with KU-. Make sure the ID belongs to the exact course you will attend. A similar class at the same studio with a different instructor or schedule may not be certified.
Look for the Kurs-ID on the studio’s or provider’s website. If it is listed, skip the ZPP search and enter the number directly in your insurer’s course search.
3. Check the subsidy with your own insurer
Before you pay, look the course up once more on your insurer’s own search. That is where you see what you will actually pay, because each insurer sets its own rate and limit.
TK’s course search accepts a Kurs-ID directly.
TK: TK health course search. Enter the Kurs-ID, or search by area and topic.
AOK Bayern: AOK Bayern health course search, which works the same way.
When I entered a Pilates course in Munich (Kurs-ID KU-BE-Z5MGGY) in the TK search, it showed a fee of €170, a TK member share of €34, ten 60 minute sessions, and the venue and dates on one screen.
A real TK search result: fee, member share, sessions, venue and dates.
4. Before the first session
- Certification date: the course must start before the “gültig bis” date.
- Attendance: in person and live online courses usually require at least 80 % attendance; online courses you take at your own pace require 100 %.
- Certificate: after the last session, get the certificate of attendance (Teilnahmebescheinigung) and submit it to your insurer.
In Munich, the adult education center MVHS lists its insurer subsidized health courses (Gesundheitskurse gemäß § 20 SGB V) in one place. Schedules and Kurs-IDs change each term, so confirm the current course in the ZPP or insurer search before booking.
Can one course earn a subsidy and bonus points?
The course subsidy and the bonus program are separate systems. With some insurers, one certified course earns both. With others, a general health course is not a bonus activity at all.
- TK: yes. You get the course subsidy, and the same course counts as a TK-AktivBonus activity worth 1,000 points, so €10 cash or €20 dividend.
- Barmer: yes. When you apply for the subsidy, the certificate can also be passed on to the bonus program.
- DAK: yes. A certified course is subsidized and also earns AktivBonus points.
- IKK classic: yes. Its official FAQ says a quality certified course can be refunded and registered for IKK Bonus at the same time.
- KKH: yes. The subsidized course also counts as a KKH Bonus activity.
- AOK Bayern: general ZPP courses are subsidized, but they are not on the 2026 bonus list. Smoking cessation courses (Raucherentwöhnungskurs) are the exception.
- hkk: certified courses are subsidized, and prevention courses are on the bonusaktiv list, but I found no official statement that one course can earn both. Ask before you rely on it.
06Dental cleaning and the dental bonus booklet are two different things
The cleaning amounts in section 03 are what each insurer pays from its own budget for a professional cleaning. You do not need private dental insurance to get them.
A professional cleaning (PZR) removes tartar and stains and is normally paid by you. The regular dental checkup (Zahnvorsorge) is covered by public insurance and is what gets stamped in your dental bonus booklet (Bonusheft).
A cleaning on its own does not earn a stamp. If you book a cleaning, ask whether the checkup can be done on the same day.
Why the booklet matters years later
The Bonusheft has nothing to do with the bonus program in the rest of this article. It is a record that you have had regular dental checkups, and it matters when you need dental prosthetics such as a crown, bridge or denture.
For these, public insurance first sets a standard treatment amount and then pays a fixed share of it. Without a record, the share is 60 %. With five consecutive years of checkups it rises to 70 %, and with ten years to 75 %. If the standard amount is €1,000, that is the difference between €600, €700 and €750. For the Bonusheft, adults need at least one documented checkup a year; from age 12 to 17, one per half year. Younger children also have age appropriate statutory dental prevention, but Bonusheft entries start at age 12. A missing stamp can usually be added later from the practice’s records.
The percentage applies to the standard treatment amount set by public insurance. If you choose more expensive materials or an implant, the difference is still yours to pay.
Without private dental insurance
Claim the cleaning subsidy from your public insurer and that is it. At TK, cleaning is also on the health dividend list, but the €40 TK has already paid as its regular subsidy cannot be refunded again from the dividend.
With private dental insurance
Claim from your public insurer first, then send only the remaining amount to your private dental insurer (Zahnzusatzversicherung). How much it covers depends on your policy.
My own €99 cleaning
My own cleaning: TK first, then my private dental insurance for the rest.
I paid €99 at the dentist and uploaded the receipt to TK, which paid its regular €40. I then claimed the remaining €59 from my private dental insurance, sending the original receipt together with TK’s payment notice.
You are not claiming the full €99 twice. The private insurer only looks at what is left after public insurance has paid, under its own terms, so having one does not automatically make every cleaning free.
07Screening bonuses follow the official schedule
Many bonus activities are screenings, and each has its own age range and interval set by law. Seeing “Krebsvorsorge” (cancer screening) in the app does not mean you can have the same test every year.
| Screening | Who and how often (2026) |
|---|---|
| Health checkup (Check-up) | Once between 18 and 34, then every 3 years from 35 |
| Skin cancer | Every 2 years from 35 |
| Cervical cancer | Women 20 to 34: Pap test every year. From 35: Pap and HPV test together every 3 years |
| Breast | Women from 30: breast exam every year. 50 to 75: mammogram every 2 years |
| Prostate | Men from 45, every year |
| Bowel cancer | Men and women from 50: up to two colonoscopies 10 years apart, or a stool test (iFOBT) every 2 years |
Since April 2025, colonoscopy screening starts at 50 for women as well as men; it used to start at 55 for women.
There is no reason to have extra tests for the sake of points. Start with the screenings you are due for this year and upload each one on the day.
08Every family member has a separate account
If your children are on your family insurance (Familienversicherung), their activities do not add to your points. Each person has a separate bonus account, so a child’s U and J checkups (the German pediatric and youth checkups), vaccinations, dental checkups and sports club activity all have to be registered and submitted for that child.
How children take part also depends on age. At AOK Bayern, children can use the app from 15; younger children take part on paper only.
AOK Bayern: children aged 0 to 17 who join for the first time from January 1, 2026 receive a €100 starter bonus (Starterbonus) once their first activity is accepted. This is a one time payment per child.
TK: under 18s get the full fee of a certified health course refunded.
How we track it as a TK family
When I put everything for our family on one page, split into children, university student and parents, it was immediately clear who had not joined yet and whose dental checkup was missing. I removed our personal details and turned it into a checklist by age group.
What to submit for each age group in a TK family.
Write in each family member’s name, then tick off registration, participation year, checkups and vaccinations by age group, the proof each activity needs, and a simple yearly routine. It works well printed and stuck on the fridge.
09Deadlines are where the money gets lost
When people lose a bonus after doing the checkups and the workouts, the reason is usually a missed deadline.
| Insurer | Deadline and catch |
|---|---|
| TK | Submit within 3 months after your personal 12 month period ends. Once you settle, you cannot add anything for that participation year |
| AOK Bayern | Submit by March 31 of the following year. Activities earlier in the same calendar year count even if you joined later, but step tracking only counts from the day you join |
Other insurers have deadlines too. At hkk, for example, receipts for the health subsidy must be submitted by December 31 of the following year.
At TK, your bonus participation ends when your insurance ends, and anything not yet claimed is lost. If you plan to switch, open the bonus section in your last month and upload the checkups and vaccinations you have not submitted yet.
10Look after your health and collect what you are owed
The real value of these programs is not a few extra euros. They nudge you to keep up with checkups, vaccinations, exercise and dental visits, and they pay you for things you are already doing. The dental bonus booklet works the same way over a longer horizon: no money today, but more support later if you ever need dental prosthetics.
When you compare insurers, three questions matter more than the maximum amount in the advertising.
- Does the insurer reward what you already do?
- Does cash or a health spending credit suit your spending?
- Will you keep submitting proof and keep your dental booklet up to date?
Before you think about switching, open the bonus section of the insurer you already have. Upload this year’s checkups and workouts, and check your dental booklet for missing stamps. Once that is done, the following years take very little effort.
Continue reading
German Public Health Insurance: Contributions, Family Insurance and What Changes by 2028
Sources and dates: Bonus rules, subsidies and deadlines were checked against each insurer’s official pages, statutes (Satzung) and participation terms (Teilnahmebedingungen), and screening intervals against the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) and the Federal Ministry of Health, on October 7, 2026. Course certification follows the ZPP criteria of the GKV-Spitzenverband. AOK figures are for AOK Bayern; other regional AOKs have different programs. Insurers can change amounts, limits and deadlines every year, so check your own insurer’s app or website before you rely on a number.
Disclosure: We are TK members and pay our own contributions. This article is not sponsored and contains no affiliate links.
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