The electronic treatment and cost plan has great potential to simplify everyday work in dental practices. However, many doctors are still not making full use of the eHKP's options: The electronic application and approval process is considered complex and requires special technical components. However, once you have overcome the initial hurdles, the paperless application process a lot of time and relieves your entire practice team.
What is the EHKP?
As the name suggests, the electronic treatment and cost plan (eHKP) replaces the treatment and cost plan in paper form. In the new application process, you can send your patient's treatment plan electronically to the responsible health insurance company. They will send your answer back to you in the same way. Your practice management system then automatically recognizes the application and assigns it to the appropriate patient record.
Benefits of the electronic application and approval process
The new treatment and cost plan for dentists enormously simplifies and accelerates the previously time-consuming paper process. Patients and practices no longer have to wait long for a response from health insurance companies. This gives both planning security and also the Doctor-patient communication Simplifies enormously. The EHKP also has a positive side effect: Digitalization saves tons of paper for treatment plans and Medical practices more sustainable. Last but not least, digitization simply saves your practice team a lot of time.
With Nelly's digital patient and billing tool Save even more resources in everyday practice: Up to 90 minutes per day and 80 percent printing and paper costs.
What are the special features of the eHKP?
The new treatment and cost plan for dentists has some special features. If the fund rejects the application, for example, it also sends the EHKP an indicator for the reason for the rejection. There are also new diagnostic and treatment planning shortcuts. One List of all new report abbreviations is provided by KZVBW.
With the electronic application, insured persons are also no longer provided with the complete ICP and there is also no need to send them by post. Instead, health insurance companies send easy-to-understand patient information, including necessary declarations of consent, directly to their patients.
Of course, there will still be special and hardship cases that cannot be standardized with the new treatment and cost plan. For this purpose, there is an extra label in the electronic form, which is sent electronically to the cash register. She then initiates the examination and contacts the patients.
When does the EHKP apply?
The pilot phase of the new application and approval process began as early as January 1, 2022, and live operation began on July 1, 2022. The grace period for all practices ended on January 1, 2023: Since then, the ICP can only be sent electronically.
Note: Is your electronic application and approval process not yet running smoothly? In the event of faults, you can still print out the eHKP and send it by post. However, you must explain this in an extra comment field.
Technical requirements for the eHKP
If you are already using the telematics infrastructure for dentists, much of the necessary technical equipment is already available in your practice. These are:
- EBZ module or PVS updates with integrated EBZ function
- If not yet available, a connection to the telematics infrastructure
- Your electronic dental card and electronic practice card
- eHealth connector (version PTV3 or higher)
- Stationary eHealth card reader terminal
- KIM address and KIM client module
KIM (Communication in the Medical Sector) sends applications and documents directly from your PVS to health insurance and back again. To do this, you need a KIM address, which you can obtain from your selected KIM provider.
Submit an electronic treatment and cost plan — Here's how it goes
The new EHKP is intended to simplify the entire application and approval process. But what does that actually look like in practice? We have summarized the process for you:
- Step 1: Do you have the eHKP in your practice management system created digitally, send it directly to the cash registers via KIM's encrypted email process. The advantage: The content is automatically signed and sent directly to the correct KIM address of the responsible health insurance company.
- Step 2: The health insurance company reviews the treatment plan, approves or rejects it and also sends your decision back to your practice electronically via KIM in a timely manner.
- Step 3: Your PVS then automatically assigns the applications to patient records and categorizes between “approved as planned,” “approved with changes,” or “rejected.”
- Step 4: Insured persons receive their patient information with all necessary declarations of consent by post from the health insurance companies.
With Nelly to digital practice
Are you convinced of the electronic application system and would like to make your practice fit for the digital future? Then Nelly is the perfect choice for you in addition to your PVS! With Nelly, you can store your documents as soon as patient admission Manage electronically easily and quickly. Annoying paperwork and endless scanning are now a thing of the past. Other highlights from Nelly include:
- Digital anamnesis
- Sign many treatment contracts digitally
- private and IGEL services billing automatically
- Secure end-to-end document transfer
- Data security at the highest level
More comfort but easy
To make the transition to digital practice Even easier to manage, Nelly can be seamlessly integrated into any practice system. Thanks to the intuitive operation, you also do not need any further training. Now you too can create a digital workflow in your practice. 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.
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