People with statutory health insurance can redeem their electronic prescriptions at the pharmacy in two ways: via an app and via an electronic health card (eGK). For this purpose, pharmacies have special card readers, into which insured people – like doctors – simply have to insert their health card. A pin is not required.
Patients will only receive the printout if they expressly request it or if they live in a nursing home and require long-term medication. The paper printout contains a prescription code. By scanning this code at the pharmacy, the medication can be dispensed.
Electronic prescription via app
Another way to receive and transmit electronic prescriptions is the officially approved one application called “electronic prescription”. It is available for free in the Google, Apple and Huawei app stores. She developed it Gematicsresponsible for building a secure data network for the German healthcare system. The main shareholder of this company is the Federal Ministry of Health.
This is how electronic prescription via app works
The doctor’s office sends a code to the e-prescription app. The insured person can check it in person at the pharmacy or send it electronically – for example, to collect the medication later or have it delivered.
requirements
O Smartphone should at least Android 7 or iOS 14 as an operating system and be NFC-enabled. The abbreviation stands for “Near Field Communication”. NFC enables data exchange between devices and is used, for example contactless payment used.
You can also register in the app electronic health card with NFC function required, recognizable by a six-digit CAN number (see image) as well as the associated PIN. Policyholders receive the PIN from their health insurance company. They usually have to authenticate themselves specifically for this.
A warning: If the health card and mobile phone are not NFC-compatible, the app can only be used to a limited extent – for example, to scan prescription codes and redeem them at the pharmacy. If necessary, health insurers will issue a new electronic health card.