New pilot project: This should change for health insurance customers

Pilot project is already underway

E-prescription was just the beginning: what the health insurance companies are planning now

The e-prescription is a success, now the e-regulation should follow. While a requirement is not due until 2030, the first health insurance companies are already moving forward with their own projects.

The electronic prescription for medication has now become part of patients’ everyday lives. By October last year, a total of one billion e-prescriptions had been redeemed, with several million being added every day.

If patients have their way, e-prescriptions should conquer more areas in the future. According to a Forsa survey commissioned by the Techniker Krankenkasse, the vast majority of the 1,410 respondents (83 percent) are in favor of electronic prescriptions (e-regulations), including for remedies and aids. Anyone who will be prescribed insoles or compression stockings in the future will want to receive the corresponding prescription digitally and no longer in paper form.

The e-Regulation has the highest approval ratings among younger people: 91 percent of adults up to the age of 39 support its introduction. Approval is also high among older insured people over 60 years of age (74 percent).

The Techniker Krankenkasse (TK) has started a model project together with six other health insurance companies (AOK Bayern, Barmer, BIG Direkt-gesund, DAK-Gesundheit, HEK, IKK Classic) in which there are e-regulations for almost all medical aids in several regions. The only exceptions are visual and hearing aids and nursing aids.

According to TK, there is great interest from patients. Around 175,000 people have downloaded the corresponding app from their health insurance company in order to receive electronic prescriptions for medical aids.

After the prescription, patients receive the e-prescription sent directly to their smartphone. The prerequisite for this is the corresponding app from the respective health insurance company. Using the app, the insured can send the prescription directly to medical supply stores or other medical aid providers, provided they participate in the model project.

Apart from the pilot project of the seven health insurance companies, the Federal Government the general introduction of the e-Regulation for June 2029 (remedies) and July 2030 (aids) – this emerges from the current draft of the “Law for Data and Digital Innovation in Health Care” (GeDIG). From then on, doctors will be obliged to issue and transmit medical or medical aid prescriptions electronically.

However, the GeDIG has not yet been approved by the Bundestag. A postponement of the deadlines is therefore possible.