Slimmed down electronic health card

Very slimmed down electronic health card

07/12/2011

Currently, the statutory health insurance funds are about to distribute the electronic health cards to the approximately 70 million policyholders in Germany. But so far, the new cards are very little, a connection to the Internet should only work slimmed down. A nationwide distribution with full functionality is only planned for 2015. The health card today can hardly do more than the old health insurance cards.

All health insurances are encouraged to distribute the new electronic health cards to their members. Actually, the new cash card should already be issued four years ago nationwide. Again and again there were technical and data protection concerns that further delayed the introduction. To date, experts estimate the development costs at around 600 million euros. Whether the costs can be restored, is still in the stars.

Only basic functions implemented in the electronic health card
Now, the new health card should be equipped with additional online functions as quickly as possible. A corresponding plan for the Internet connection has the shareholders' meeting of the developer consortium „gematik“ submitted. It is noticeable that some intended functions are initially postponed in order to avoid further delays due to a large number of specifications. Thus, the new cards will initially go only with online basis functions at the start. Accordingly, only the comparison of the personal data of the cash patient between doctor and health insurance as well as an electronic signature for the binding signing of, for example, medical reports is possible. More, the new map will not be able to accomplish technically.

During the first test runs, errors kept occurring. Thus, delays in retrieving the data were observed, because the reading of the data worked very slowly. As a result, the medical profession reacted cautiously or critically to the introduction of the health card. According to a survey of the Techniker Krankenkasse at that time, two-thirds of the physicians surveyed said that the system should first be made stable before the new cards are introduced. The fears were great that otherwise the pure chaos in the practices could break out, if it happens again and again data loss. Most of all, the cards are now equipped in a very slimmed-down version.

Patient file and medication prescriptions still a dream of the future
Further applications such as electronic drug prescriptions, patient records or electronic medical reports are initially not implemented. By the „gradual approach“ would be a first „Planning security for all involved“ Carl-Heinz Müller, Chairman of the Shareholders' Meeting and Board of the Federal Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians. "Due to the flexibility of the solution, however, further medical applications can be introduced independently as soon as they have reached the necessary maturity," said Müller.

First of all, the data connections in the doctor's practices are evidently to be set up and it is to be examined whether the standard for the data transmissions is proven to be safe in practice. Especially in this point were numerous criticisms in the past. The shareholders apparently assume that the manufacturers of the practice software are then more willing to create the basics for online patient records. The latter should convince even critical doctors that an Internet connection is not only beneficial for the health insurance companies, but also provides the medical practices with numerous facilities. For the same reason, the electronic signature was included in the first step of the online rollout.

Representatives of the medical profession were satisfied after the meeting. Gematik now plans to publish a new tender for the technical realization of online connectivity. At the beginning of 2013, the first test series will then be undertaken in order to improve the online technology. Once the tests have been completed and there are no problems, the full health card could go online nationwide in 2015.

Majority of medical practices and hospitals equipped with terminals
Meanwhile, the majority of doctors' offices and clinics have card readers. More than 85 percent, according to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians applied for funding for the acquisition. On the basis of the granted approvals, it can be seen that the supply of more than 95 percent of the cash patients is now covered, as the company Gematik explained. In October, the Federal Ministry of Health had prescribed the funds to provide at least 10 percent of the insured with new health insurance cards. For this purpose, the health insurance companies had opened online portals so that insured persons could, for example, upload their passport photos. Due to these and other measures, the Federal Government's quotas can be met by the end of the year. (Sb)

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Image: Max Mustermann Health Card, AOK