Since January 1, 2024, the e-prescription has been mandatory for all prescription drugs that are billed through public health insurance. This is an important part of the digitization campaign in healthcare — just like electronic health records. Pharmacies across Germany are now able to redeem e-prescriptions.
Time to take a closer look at the e-prescription — what is behind it, what benefits are associated with it and what laws apply here? What should doctors and patients absolutely know and what applies to private patients? We'll explain.
What is the e-prescription?
The e-prescription is the digital form of the traditional doctor's prescription on paper. It is an electronic document that can be created by the doctor and redeemed by the patient at the pharmacy. The main benefits at a glance:
- Digitalization: The e-prescription supports doctors, patients and pharmacies with efficient communication and documentation. The paperwork is declining. With the e-prescription app, for example, follow-up prescriptions can be automated and prescribed medications can be ordered to the pharmacy of choice.
- Patient safety: From interaction checks to medication plans to medication reminders, the e-prescription in combination with appropriate apps provides attractive new functions.
- Protection against counterfeiting: The e-prescription reduces the risk of fraud, falsification, or loss of the prescription. Security protocols are implemented to ensure the privacy and integrity of the recipe.
What is a digital recipe?
Digital prescription is synonymous with e-prescription. that Federal Ministry of Health (BMG) It speaks of the “e-recipe” — that is the official spelling in Germany. There are also synonyms and related spellings such as digital recipe, electronic recipe or even e-recipe.
What is the legal basis?
The legal basis for e-prescription is a combination of many different laws. The most important are summarized in a nutshell:
- that E-Health Act (Act for Secure Digital Communications and Applications in Health Care) provides that the e-prescription is mandatory for all prescription drugs from January 1, 2024.
- that ECSC Act (Electronic Health Card Act) regulates the introduction and use of the electronic health card (eGK) in Germany. The eGK is a prerequisite for using the e-prescription.
- With the DVG (Digital Supply Act), the course was set for the introduction of e-prescriptions in Germany. It promotes digitization in healthcare.
- that PDSG (Patient Data Protection Act) regulates data protection in the context of electronic health records and e-prescriptions. It ensures that patient data is securely stored and transmitted.
There are also other laws and standards that regulate the handling of medical prescriptions and medications or data protection.
How does the e-prescription work?
The e-prescription is issued by doctors and stored in a central database of the federal government's telematics infrastructure, which pharmacies also have access to. In this way, patients can redeem their e-prescription at their preferred pharmacy at any time.
Technical requirements & terms
To better understand the processes for issuing and redeeming an e-prescription, here is a brief explanation of the most important terms:
- Die telematics infrastructure (TI) is a digital platform for healthcare in Germany — provided by National Agency for Digital Medicine (gematik).
- Die E-recipe app The gematik is called “The E-Recipe” and was developed for NFC-enabled smartphones. NFC stands for Near Field Communication and is a standard for wireless communication that is implemented in most current smartphones.
- The electronic health professional card (eHBA) is a personalized, forgery-proof document that is used by doctors in Germany to authenticate and sign themselves in TI.
- One qualified electronic signature (QES) is a type of digital signature to ensure the authenticity and integrity of a document.
- Die electronic health card (eGK) is a chip card that legally insured persons receive from their health insurance in Germany. It is also known colloquially as a health card or insurance card.
Issuing the e-prescription — what doctors need to know
The doctor creates an e-prescription in his electronic medical practice software. The basic requirements for this are an eHBA and a QES. The e-prescription is stored in the telematics infrastructure and can therefore be accessed using the eGK or the patient's e-prescription app.
If the patient has neither a suitable app nor an eGK available, the e-prescription can simply be used in an emergency printed out in practice become.
Redeeming the e-prescription — that's what patients need to know
The patient can redeem their e-prescription both in online pharmacies and in local pharmacies. There are three options available for this:
- Redemption via app: To log in to the gematik e-prescription app, the patient needs an NFC-enabled eGK and a PIN from their health insurance company or an existing login in the app for the electronic health record (EPA app) from their health insurance company.
- Redemption via eGK: The patient can redeem the e-prescription with their eGK in a pharmacy. No PIN is required. The pharmacy can then retrieve the e-prescription from the central database and deliver the medication.
- Redemption via paper printout: If neither an eGK nor an app is available to redeem the e-prescription, the patient can ask their doctor for a printed version of the e-prescription. Each e-prescription has a unique prescription code that can be scanned in the pharmacy — similar to a QR code.
The e-recipe for Android and Apple
Gematik's e-recipe app called “The E-Recipe” is available both in Google Play Store as well as in Apple App Store and in the Huawei AppGallery available. To register, the patient needs:
- An existing registration in the EPO app of your health insurance company OR
- An NFC-enabled smartphone, an NFC-enabled health card and a PIN, which must be obtained from the health insurance company beforehand.
Special cases: the e-prescription for private patients and third parties
There is no eGK available to private patients. For this reason, it is also not possible to log in to the gematik e-recipe app. In fact, they are Federal government plans for private prescriptions not yet completed and doctors can continue to issue private prescriptions using a prescription block.
Should a E-prescription redeemed by third parties If, the representative needs the patient's eGK, or a paper printout of the e-prescription. Alternatively, responsibility can be transferred in the e-recipe app, for example with the Family function.
Participating doctors and therapists: Who issues e-prescriptions?
In Germany, the right to issue e-prescriptions is regulated in the same way as for conventional prescription drugs.
- doctors: All licensed doctors who are authorized to prescribe medications can issue e-prescriptions to the same extent. This includes general practitioners, specialists and dentists.
- psychotherapists: Medical psychotherapists who have studied medicine may prescribe prescription drugs, as opposed to psychological psychotherapists.
Psychologists, physiotherapists, alternative practitioners and other healthcare professionals are in Germany not to the exhibition eligible from prescriptions.
How safe is the e-prescription?
The e-prescription is considered to be very forgery-proof and offers many benefits for doctors, patients and pharmacies. The following precautions ensure that no unauthorised persons have access to the sensitive data relating to the e-prescription:
- Die The need for an eHBA and QES ensures that only authorized doctors can issue e-prescriptions.
- Unique recipe codes prevent duplication and make tracking and validation easier.
- Both the issuing medical practices and the redeeming pharmacies are secure interfaces connected to the federal government's telematics infrastructure.
- The telematics infrastructure is a nationwide network operated by health insurance companies and the Federal Ministry of Health. The network consists of a number of Data centers within Germany, whose exact position on protection is not publicly known.
The e-recipe and digitization
The e-prescription is an important part of the answer to the desire for greater efficiency and convenience in healthcare. Die Digitalization in medical practices is a necessary step to relieve medical staff and provide patients with better care. The seamless integration of current technologies such as smartphones takes the doctor-patient experience to a new level of convenience.
This is also where Nelly comes in. Regardless of whether digital patient recording, simple document management or convenient payment processing — Nelly provides the basis for a digital workflow. Practice saves resources, gains efficiency and benefits from modern communication channels. Interested? Wir advise you without obligation and free of charge to your individual case!
The personal names used in this article always refer equally to all persons. Dual naming and alternate names are omitted in order to improve readability.