Electronic treatment and cost plan (eHKP) - everything you need to know!

The electronic treatment and cost plan has great potential to simplify everyday work in dental practices. However, many doctors still do not fully exploit the possibilities of the eHKP: The electronic application and approval process is considered complex, and it also requires special technical components. However, once you have overcome the initial hurdles, the paperless application process saves 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 paper treatment and cost plan. In the new application procedure, you can send your patient's treatment plan electronically to the relevant health insurer. They will send your response back to you in the same way. Your practice management system then recognizes the application completely automatically and assigns it to the corresponding patient file.  

Advantages of the electronic application and approval process

The new treatment and cost plan for dentists enormously simplifies and speeds up the previously time-consuming paper process. Patients and practices no longer have to wait long for a response from the insurance companies. This gives both parties planning security and also simplifies doctor-patient communication enormously. In addition, the eHKP has another positive side effect: digitization saves tons of paper for treatment plans and makes medical practices more sustainable . Last but not least, digitization simply saves your practice team a lot of time.

Nelly's digital patient and billing tool saves you even more resources in your day-to-day practice: up to 90 minutes of time per day and 80 percent in printing and paper costs.

What special features apply to the eHKP?

The new treatment and cost plan for dentists has some special features. For example, if the health insurance fund rejects the application, it will also transmit an indicator for the reason for rejection in the eHKP. In addition, there are new diagnosis and therapy planning abbreviations. The KZVBW provides a list of all new diagnosis codes.

With the electronic application, insureds are also no longer given the complete HKP and the postal route is also eliminated. Instead, the insurers send easy-to-understand patient information, including the necessary consent forms, 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 these, there is an extra mark in the electronic form, which is transmitted electronically to the insurance company. The insurer then initiates the check and contacts the patient.

From when does the eHKP apply?

The pilot phase for the new application and approval process began on January 1, 2022, and live operation started on July 1, 2022. The grace period for all practices ended on January 1, 2023: Since then, the HKP can only be sent electronically.

Note: Is your electronic application and approval process still not running smoothly? If there are problems, you can still print out the eHKP and send it by mail. However, you must justify this on an extra remarks 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 updates of the PVS with integrated EBZ function
• If not yet available, a connection to the telematics infrastructure
• Your electronic dentist ID card and electronic practice ID card
• eHealth connector (version PTV3 or higher)
• Stationary eHealth card reader terminal
• KIM address and KIM client module

KIM (Communication in Medicine) sends applications and documents directly from your PVS to the health insurance company and back again. For this, you need a KIM address, which you will receive from your selected KIM provider.

Submitting an electronic treatment and cost plan - this is how it works

Submitting an electronic treatment and cost plan - this is how it works
The new eHKP is intended to simplify the entire application and approval process. But what does it actually look like in practice? We have summarized the process for you:

• Step 1: Once you have created the eHKP digitally in your practice management system, send it directly to the health insurers via KIM's encrypted mail procedure. The advantage: The contents are 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 its decision back to your practice electronically via KIM in a timely manner.
• Step 3: Your PVS then automatically assigns the requests to the patient files and categorizes between "approved as planned", "approved with changes" or "rejected".
• Step 4: The insured persons receive their patient information with all necessary consent forms by mail from the insurance companies.

With Nelly to digital practice

You are convinced of the electronic application system and want 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 easily and quickly manage your document filing electronically, even during patient admission. Annoying paperwork and eternal scanning are finally a thing of the past. Further highlights of Nelly are:

• Digital anamnesis
• Sign many treatment contracts digitally
• Automatic billing of private and IGel services
• Secure end-to-end document transmission
• Data security at the highest level

More comfort but simple

To make the transition to digital practice even easier to manage, Nelly integrates seamlessly with any practice system. What's more, thanks to its intuitive operation, you don't need any advanced training. Create a digital workflow in your practice now. We will advise you on your individual case without obligation and free of charge!

Contact Nelly now!

The personal designations used in this article always refer equally to all persons. For the sake of better readability, we have refrained from using double or opposite names.