The only e-prescription pilot region for medical practices puts projects on hold
Die Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians Westfalen-Lippe (KVWL) is suspending the introduction of electronic prescriptions. The doctors’ association announced on Thursday in Dortmund that the attitude of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner made it necessary to do this. The data protection officer Ulrich Kelber (SPD) had vetoed the plan to use insurance cards in September.
Westfalen-Lippe is the only pilot region in Germany where the e-prescription should be introduced on a large scale. At the beginning of September, 250 practices joined, this number should be increased gradually – but this is no longer happening.
So far, you can only call up the e-prescription via your cell phone or via a printout. You need a PIN from your health insurance company for an app – you can only get this after personal verification at your health insurance company or in the post office. Apparently, the procedure is too tedious for many, and there were only a few applications for the PIN.
skepticism in the medical community
The sluggish introduction is made more difficult by the fact that there is great skepticism among the medical profession. Only around 525,000 digital prescriptions have been redeemed so far this year. For comparison: In Germany, around 500 million prescriptions are issued as pink slips of paper every year – so the proportion of digital prescriptions is negligible.
Although all practices in Germany can offer the e-prescription on a voluntary basis, the product is far from being used across the board. With the pilot region of Westphalia-Lippe, digital prescribing was to gain new impetus – the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians there had agreed to actively support the introduction and gradually involve more practices. Schleswig-Holstein should also move forward, but broke off this in the case of medical practices due to data protection concerns about the planned use of SMS and e-mails.
In the case of Westfalen-Lippe, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner had feared that there could be data misuse in pharmacies in the planned form. Necessary technical upgrades with updates for connectors – i.e. routers – and the pharmacy software will probably last until mid-2023. The KVWL did not want to wait that long and now pulled the ripcord.
“The decision of the data protection officer is a declaration of bankruptcy for digitization in the healthcare sector in general and specifically in outpatient care,” said the KVWL board member Thomas Müller. The goal that 25 percent of all prescriptions from those with statutory health insurance are made electronically cannot be achieved.
The decision of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner calls into question the desired progress for patients, doctors and all other parties involved. “We are again demanding a purely digital solution – only then can the rollout be continued by the KVWL,” said Müller.
The Berlin company Gematik, which is responsible for the digitization of the healthcare system, also expressed disappointment. One regrets the decision of the KVWL not to push the introduction of the e-prescription further for the time being. The e-prescription will continue to be used nationwide, she pointed out. Since the beginning of October, more than 3,700 medical practices have issued e-prescriptions that have been redeemed in more than 9,200 pharmacies. The number of PINs issued for the “The E-Recipe” app is still low, but reports from patients confirm the advantages of the completely paperless path.
Major projects in the German health care system
The next steps for the nationwide introduction of the e-prescription will be coordinated by the shareholders of Gematik – in addition to the majority owner, the Federal Ministry of Health, also interest groups from the health sector – at one of their next meetings. According to Gematik, the goal of introducing the e-prescription across the board in 2023 remains in place.
The switch from paper prescriptions to digital prescriptions is a major project in the German health care system that has had initial problems. A pilot project in Berlin-Brandenburg largely came to nothing last year, and a nationwide test phase began later than planned. The mandatory introduction originally planned for January 2022 was cancelled. The voluntary introduction with pilot regions, where the motivation in the medical profession is relatively high, is now also developing into a non-starter.
Access to the digital prescription via the app can be practical, for example if you have attended a video consultation and the doctor does not have to send a paper prescription by post afterwards. The digital prescription does not apply to privately insured persons.
