Picture on health card will be mandatory from 2014

Electronic health card becomes mandatory

05/10/2013

In Germany, the new electronic health card (eGK) is being introduced across the board and replaces the previous health insurance card. From 2014, a picture on the map is mandatory.

Validity ends at the end of the year
The previous health insurance card loses its validity at the end of the year. As of 1 January 2014, only the new electronic health card (eGK) with the insured person's photo will be permitted. Franziska Becher from the IKK classic explains: „The validity of all old KV cards still in circulation ends on 31 December 2013.“ This would have agreed to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians and the Central Association of Statutory Health Insurance.

95 percent of those insured already have the card
According to information from the GKV-Spitzenverband, around 95 percent of those insured already have access to the eGK. The remaining five percent should now as soon as possible submit a photo to their health insurance, so that the new eGK can be issued in time by the end of the year. Prerequisite for the receipt of the new card is a current passport photo, which is displayed on this. Only insured persons under the age of 15 and few others, such as those in need of care, also received their eGC without a photograph. Most health insurance companies offer the possibility to transmit a passport photo digitally.

Without picture no map
Insured persons who do not provide a picture for their fund did not receive an eGK according to Franziska Becher: „You do not receive an electronic health card and thus have no medical proof of entitlement.“ As a result, unless a valid proof of insurance is submitted within ten days of treatment, the doctor is entitled to issue a private invoice and to claim remuneration. „The reimbursement of these costs is complicated and involves a considerable amount of extra work. "

Criticism of the new health card
The new electronic health card has been criticized since its planned introduction. By June of this year, 728 million euros have already been invested in the eGK, and although their benefits are in dispute. Thus, a benefit could be secured only in the long term, by faster and more flexible on the health data of patients can be used by better data connections. For data protection reasons, however, this raises problems. Even physicians are partially critical and so the association of doctors said that the old cards would be accepted for a long time in 2014. The expensive abolition of the 1995 introduced health insurance card can hardly be justified. (Ad)

Image: AOK pattern