How to apply for your electronic health professional card (eHBA)

New digital applications in the field of medicine come onto the market almost every year. Both patients and practitioners benefit from these innovative ways of improving patient care. At the same time, data security issues are increasingly coming into focus. The challenge is to ensure that only authorized persons have access to sensitive patient data. The legislator provides a clear answer to this: through the use of the electronic health professional card!

What is the eHBA?

The electronic health professional card - eHBA for short - identifies you as a member of a healthcare profession. The card can be applied for by these professional groups:

• Doctors: General practitioners, specialists and other medical professionals.
• Dentists: People who work in dentistry.
• Pharmacists: Professionals in the pharmacy sector.‍
• Nursing staff: nurses, caregivers and other members of the nursing professions.‍
• Therapists: Physiotherapists, occupational therapists and other therapists.

The eHBA has the format of a cheque card and serves as a visual ID card through personalization with a photo. Thanks to an integrated microprocessor chip on which your personal data is stored, it also acts as a means of identity verification in the digital space. For example, you can use the eHBA to sign electronically in compliance with the law.

Important: The eHBA is personal and non-transferable.

What are the advantages of the eHBA?

Having an electronic health professional card comes with a number of advantages for you. For example, only holders of the eHBA can use certain digital medical applications and offer them to their patients. Digital services are extremely popular with patients! According to a study, around two thirds of respondents want to use the electronic patient file. Enabling their use is a major competitive advantage (for your practice). However, this is not your only benefit - these are your direct advantages:

• Secure data encryption
• Use of digital applications
• Digital signature function

You can use these digital applications with the eHBA

Many applications already require unique authentication via eHBA. These include

• Electronic Patient Record (ePA)
• Electronic prescription (ePrescription)
• Electronic doctor's letter (eArztbrief)
• Emergency data management (NFDM)
• Electronic medication plan (eMP)
• Electronic certificate of incapacity for work (eAU)
• Communication in Healthcare (KIM)
• Digital laboratory referrals (form 10)
• Teleradiology consults

However, due to the ongoing digitalization of the healthcare system, it can be assumed that even more applications will be added in the future. It is therefore worth investing in an eHBA. But what costs are associated with the ID card?

What are the costs of the eHBA?

The costs for the electronic health professional cards vary depending on the professional group and provider, but are around 84 euros net per year. With a validity period of five years, you should therefore expect to pay around 420 euros net.

Which providers are there?

There are currently four approved providers of eHBAs:

• medisign
• T-Systems
• Federal Printing Office
• SHC Stolle & Heinz Consultants

Applying for an eHBA: how to do it in six steps

Applying for the eHBA for the first time often seems more complicated at first glance than it actually is. Essentially, the process comprises six consecutive steps:

1. You fill out the application on the website of the provider of your choice, upload your photo and print out the documents together with the identification form (usually POSTIDENT).
2. You can be officially identified at the identification office (e.g. at a post office using the POSTIDENT procedure) by presenting the signed application, the identification form and a valid ID document. Alternatively, a video identification procedure is also offered in some cases.
3. The identification form is completed at the identification authority and forwarded to the eHBA provider.
4. You send your application documents to the eHBA provider.
5. Once your chamber has confirmed to the provider that you belong to the specified professional group, the provider will issue your ID card, which will be sent to you by post.
6. The eHBA is activated by means of a PIN, which will also be sent to you by post.

Once the card has been activated, you can use it to its full extent. In doing so, you are making an important contribution to the digitalization of the healthcare system. But you can do even more to digitize your practice. For example with Nelly.

Become even more digital with Nelly

Special tools such as Nelly also enable your patients to manage documents digitally. It's very simple:

1. Your patients scan a QR code with their own smartphone.
2. All relevant data can be easily entered digitally in the electronic form.
3. Your patients sign with one click and transfer all documents to your practice system.

Create a digital workflow in your practice now. We will advise you on your individual case free of charge and without obligation!

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.