Healthcare: The black-red government finally wants to digitize
The healthcare coalition group remains committed to familiar digitalization efforts: ePA, standardization, and modernization of Gematik.
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In the event of a coalition being formed, the CDU/CSU and SPD want to use "the opportunities of digitalization" in healthcare policy. "We are rethinking processes and speeding them up," says the final paper of the working group on health and care, which fragdenstaat.de has published. Digitalization should also help to reduce bureaucracy in the healthcare system.
The working group remains vague about the digitization goals and also refers to the results of the Digital Working Group. The few concrete digitization goals in the paper are also real evergreens: electronic health record, standardization of health IT, upgrading of Gematik, register law.
Introduce ePA quickly
In their paper, the potential government partners renew their commitment to the electronic health record (ePA) and its planned introduction this year. After the nationwide test phase, the ePA is to be introduced "on a mandatory basis and subject to sanctions" – despite ongoing criticism and unanswered questions. This will initially affect doctors and hospitals as well as patients who have not objected to the system.
Gematik is to be further developed into "a modern agency" in order to "better network players in the field of digitalization". The potential coalition partners want to counter the proliferation and lack of competition for software in the healthcare sector with standardization. "All providers of software and IT solutions in the health and care sector must ensure loss-free, uncomplicated, digital data exchange based on uniformly defined standards by 2027," the paper states.
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Expanding telemedicine
The coalition also wants to improve the framework conditions for telemedicine and ensure "comprehensive care". The incoming federal government wants to simplify the exchange between insurance companies and practices or other service providers "in order to avoid duplicate documentation". Documentation and reporting are also to be digitized and simplified with the help of AI.
The coalition partners want to push ahead with the planned register law and improve the use of data at the Health Research Data Center. They emphasize that the protection of sensitive data is "indispensable", especially in the healthcare sector. Violations must be punished consistently.
(vbr)
