Subsidized Courses

With the Subsidized Courses addon, you can offer courses that are paid for or funded externally — by health insurance providers, employers, or other funding bodies. The addon lets you create credit packages for subsidized participants, assign them directly, and add special invoice notes for reimbursement applications.

Category: Finance

What are subsidized courses?

A subsidized course is a course whose costs are fully or partially covered by a third party — not by the participant themselves. Typical scenarios:

• Health insurance funding: Insurers reimburse prevention courses under §20 SGB V
• Corporate Health Management (BGM): Companies pay for courses for their employees
• Rehabilitation and physiotherapy: Health insurers or employers' liability insurance associations cover costs
• Social projects: Municipalities or foundations fund courses for specific target groups

The problem without this addon: Bookicorn offers credits and direct payments by default. For participants whose course fees are covered by third parties, there's no way to assign credits specifically and create the documentation needed for reimbursement applications.

The solution: The addon lets you create and assign credit packages for health insurance patients, corporate employees, and other subsidized participants. Participants book normally using their credits — you retain full documentation for reimbursement applications.

Use cases in detail

§20 prevention courses (health insurance)

Health courses under §20 SGB V are subsidized by statutory health insurance providers. Typical courses:

• Yoga, Pilates, relaxation training
• Exercise courses (back, strength, endurance)
• Nutrition coaching
• Stress management and burnout prevention

How it works: You create a credit package for the health insurance course and assign it to eligible participants. Participants book the course normally using their credits. After completion, they receive an attendance certificate and submit it along with the invoice to their health insurer. The insurer reimburses 50–100% of the course price depending on the plan.

Note: For health insurers to reimburse courses, you must be a recognized provider (certification through ZPP, SPORT PRO GESUNDHEIT, or similar). More on this in the section Certification as a prevention course.

Corporate Health Management (BGM)

Companies purchase courses for their employees as a company benefit. Your studio can:

• Create corporate credit packages and assign them to employees
• Unlock courses for company employees
• Create consolidated invoices for companies

Rehabilitation and therapeutic courses

For rehab courses, the health insurer or employer's liability insurance association often pays directly. You assign credit packages to participants — they use them to book their courses, and you create the documentation for the payer.

Activation in the Addon Store

Creating and assigning credit packages

Create a credit package for subsidized participants

Important: The course and credit package must share the same category for the credits to be redeemable for that course. Also make sure to mark the package as "Internal" — this prevents other users from accidentally purchasing it in the public shop.

Assign credits to participants

You can distribute credits to eligible participants in several ways:

• Manual assignment: Assign credits directly to individual user accounts
• Invitation link: Participants receive a registration link with automatic credit allocation
• Email domain: All users with a specific email domain automatically get access

Booking flow for subsidized participants

For participants, the booking flow is identical to normal credit bookings:

1. Select the course and click "Book"
2. Credits are automatically applied
3. Booking confirmation email with invoice note (if enabled)
4. Attendance certificate after the course (for reimbursement application)

Tip: Enable automatic attendance confirmation after the course under Settings → Emails. Health insurers often require proof of actual attendance.

Credit packages for corporate clients

For corporate clients you can create special credit packages that you assign directly — without the corporate client needing to use the public credit shop.

Create a corporate credit package

Distributing credits to employees

Employees of the company gain access through:

• Invitation link: The company receives a one-time registration link
• Email domain: All employees with a specific email domain automatically get access
• Manual assignment: You assign credits to individual user accounts

Consolidated invoice for companies

Instead of individual invoices per booking, you can create a monthly consolidated invoice for corporate clients:

1. Go to Finance → Invoices → Consolidated Invoice
2. Select the company account and the period
3. All uses of the corporate package are listed
4. Create a PDF invoice and send it to the company contact

Invoice notes for health insurance and employer

Configure the invoice note

Under Settings → Subsidized Courses → Invoice Note you can store a standardized text that appears on confirmation emails and invoices.

Attendance certificates

After a course is completed, Bookicorn can automatically send an attendance certificate by email. The certificate contains:

• Participant's name
• Course name and description
• Date and duration
• Provider information and certification number (if stored)
• Signature (digital or as an image)

Enable this feature under Settings → Courses → Attendance Certificates.

§20 prevention courses and health insurance funding

What is §20 SGB V?

§20 SGB V requires statutory health insurers to provide primary prevention services. In practical terms: if your course offering is recognized, most statutory health insurers will reimburse participants 50–100% of the course price (depending on the insurer and plan, often up to €150 per course).

Requirements for recognition

For your course to be recognized under §20, it must:

• Correspond to one of the action areas (exercise, nutrition, stress, substance use)
• Be led by a qualified specialist (proof of qualification)
• Have a minimum number of sessions (usually 8–12 sessions)
• Be certified by a recognized body

Certification bodies

Tip: ZPP is the largest and best-known certification body. A ZPP certification is recognized by almost all statutory health insurers. Check zpp.de for the requirements for your course type.

Tips and certification

Building corporate partnerships

Tip: Contact local companies with more than 50 employees directly. BGM is a legally supported area (§20b SGB V), and companies receive up to €600 per employee per year tax-free for any measure within their BGM program. Many HR departments are actively looking for local partners.

Putting together attractive corporate packages

Create credit packages with a clear structure for companies:

Communicating §20 courses

Clearly highlight the reimbursement option on the course detail page. Customers who know they can get 80% of the course costs back book far more frequently. Bookicorn provides a configurable banner for this that you can activate on course pages.

Documentation for audits

Keep all relevant records:

• Certification documents for your recognized courses
• Participant lists with signatures (Bookicorn stores digital confirmations)
• Invoices and payment receipts (from the Invoices addon)
• Qualification certificates for your trainers

Note: In the event of audits by health insurers or the tax authorities, complete documentation can be critical. Bookicorn helps with digital record-keeping — but you should still retain physical signature lists for at least 10 years.