Health - Bundestag adopts e-prescription and e-patient file for all
After years of delays, electronic prescriptions and digital patient records are to be introduced into widespread everyday use. This is provided for in a law passed by the coalition government in the Bundestag.
Accordingly, e-prescriptions are to become standard and mandatory for practices at the beginning of 2024. At the beginning of 2025, all people with statutory health insurance are to receive electronic files for health data such as findings and laboratory results - unless they refuse to do so themselves. The use of combined health data for research is also to be made possible in future.
Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke of a quantum leap with which Germany must now finally catch up with digitalization in the healthcare sector. Until now, important data has been distributed across the servers of practices and hospitals where patients were treated in the past. "This must not continue." The new regulations would have very specific benefits for patients. The treatment options for doctors would be improved.
According to the law, health insurance companies are to set up an e-file for all people with statutory health insurance by January 15, 2025 - unless they object. The file is to be a personal data memory and accompany patients throughout their lives with all doctors. The e-file is to be accessible with certain identification rules via health insurance apps. It was already introduced as an optional service in 2021, but has hardly been used to date.
E-prescriptions have been available in pharmacies for some time instead of the usual pink slips of paper. The law now makes it mandatory for doctors to issue prescriptions electronically from January 1, 2024. A second law will make it possible to link data from different sources - such as cancer registers and health insurance companies - at a central access point. Data is to be encrypted (pseudonymized). Lauterbach said that this would be a breakthrough for research in order to improve care.
Positive reactions
Green Party healthcare expert Janosch Dahmen spoke of a "long overdue update" for the digitalization of the healthcare system. "We are turning the previously useless electronic patient file for a few into a personal health data room for everyone," he told the German Press Agency. This would not only allow all treating professions to see relevant information in one place, but also patients themselves for the first time. "This will finally do away with fax machines and file folders and strengthen patient autonomy as well as patient rights."
The head of Techniker Krankenkasse, Jens Baas, said that the e-file should be a natural part of every visit to the doctor. It is important that it becomes more user-friendly. For example, logging in must be simplified. "As patients are used to from other apps, it must also be possible to identify themselves in the file using a face scan or fingerprint," said Baas. For doctors, the record must be quick and easy to fill and must not become a time waster in surgeries.
E-prescriptions on a broad front
For some time now, e-prescriptions have also been able to be filled using a special app or a printed QR code instead of the usual pink slips of paper. However, a large-scale launch was delayed several times due to technical problems. There is now an easier way to redeem prescriptions, which involves inserting the insurance card into a reader at the pharmacy.
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- The implementation of electronic prescriptions and digital patient files has been long anticipated by the Traffic light coalition government in Germany, following numerous delays.
- The adoption of the new law in the Bundestag mandates that e-prescriptions become standard for medical practices starting from January 1, 2024.
- Karl Lauterbach, the German Minister of Health (SPD), emphasized the importance of digitization in healthcare and expressed his hopes for Germany to catch up with its digitization lags in this sector.
- With the new regulations, patients' health data files, such as findings and laboratory results, will become electronic and easily accessible via health insurance apps in Germany, starting from January 15, 2025.
- The introduction of e-prescriptions in pharmacies has already occurred, and doctors will be required to issue prescriptions electronically from the start of 2024, as dictated by the law.
- Janosch Dahmen, a Green Party health expert, described the digitalization of the healthcare system as a "long overdue update" that would turn the previously unused e-files into personal health data rooms for every individual.
- Jens Baas, the head of Techniker Krankenkasse, emphasized the need for increased user-friendliness in the e-file, suggesting that simplified login methods, such as face scans or fingerprints, could improve patient acceptance.
- E-prescriptions can now be filled via a special app or a printed QR code, making the process more convenient for both patients and pharmacies, addressing the earlier concerns regarding technical difficulties.
Source: www.stern.de
