Electronic health card from October 2011

The electronic health card of health insurance will be issued from October 2011

25/02/2011

The new electronic health card (eGK) is to be introduced from October of this year. The Kassenärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KBV), the KanzVahnärztliche Bundesvereinigung (KZBV) and the German Association of Statutory Health Insurance have agreed on a procedure for the introduction of the eGK.

Almost six years after the originally scheduled launch date, the electronic health card will be issued to citizens from October. Due to massive concerns, especially with regard to technical implementation and data protection, the introduction of the eGK has been repeatedly postponed in recent years. Now the KBV, the KBZV and the top federation federation of the legal health insurance companies agreed on a procedure and decided the expenditure of the eGK starting from October of the yearly.

Statutory health insurance funds and doctors decide procedures
Actually, the eGK should already be introduced in January 2006, but in addition to data protection concerns, the technical implementation on site and the corresponding reimbursement of costs caused considerable concern to the Kassenärztlichen associations. About five years after the original launch date, the parties have now agreed on a procedure that regulates the purchase and installation of card readers in the practices. Before the new eGK is issued to patients from October onwards, doctors and dentists will now set up modern readers, making financial advances and then reimbursing a flat rate for these readers in the second and third quarters of the year. KZBV and KBV have agreed that 355 euros for stationary readers, 215 euros for installation and 280 euros for mobile readers will be provided by the health insurances. Exact information about the procedure for refinancing and equipment for the required terminals in the practices received the physicians of their Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, where „regionally (...) the Kassenärztliche associations and the funds even earlier with the reimbursement begin“ said KBV board member Carl-Heinz Müller.

Previous health insurance chip cards until 2013
From the end of the third quarter onwards, those insured by law can now apply for the eGK, but the previous health insurance chip cards continue to be considered proof of insurance and can continue to be used normally. However, as of 2013, the health insurances only want to issue eGC to their insured persons, provided that all medical practices are equipped with sufficient card readers by then. In the end, not only the administration should be simplified by the eGK, but by the access to an electronic patient file double examinations avoided, possible side effects of medicines recognized early and the treatment in the sense of the patients clearly improved, so the hope of the proponents. On the other hand there are the problems with the technical implementation and the privacy concerns, if all information on the health of a person is stored on the EGK and can be read out.

Electronic health card must first prove itself in the future
In the now planned stripped-down version of the eGK, whose introduction was decided by politics last year for 2011, initially only the so-called master data of insured persons should be compared online in order to prevent possible card misuse. In addition, emergency data could be stored at the eGK if the insured wishes so, KBV reported. For the future, however, it is planned to expand the eGK in such a way that physicians can exchange findings and information about their patients via the online card terminals. What advantages this will bring to the patient remains to be seen. Theoretically, better networking between clinicians should improve treatment quality, but there is a risk that the focus will be more on detecting cases of card misuse than on improving medical care. The statutory health insurance companies have yet to prove that the new system will improve medical services for their insured and that they will not only use the eGK in order to be able to better control the bills for the doctors in the future. (Fp)

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Image: pattern, AOK.