As of July 1st, the time has come: the farewell to the pink paper recipe will be heralded. In the future, the e-prescription will replace the prescription for prescription drugs.
Kassel – The next month will bring some crucial innovations. Because from July 2023 a lot will change, including care contributions and DHL prices. The most important thing, however, is likely to be the starting signal for the new e-prescription. Insured persons should then be able to easily pick up their prescriptions from the pharmacy with their insurance card or via an app. In the future, electronic prescriptions are to replace the pink paper prescriptions, save time and effort for patients for whom a health insurance boss has demanded cuts in benefits, and make the dispensing of medicines safer.
From Saturday: Everything you need to know about the new e-prescription
The start has been postponed several times. From July, however, the e-prescription should finally start. From July 1st, insured persons should be able to easily redeem their e-prescriptions with their insurance card or via the app in the pharmacy. A central database stores the prescriptions, which can then be called up by the pharmacies.
E-prescription starts on July 1st: what changes for patients?
In countries like the Netherlands, Sweden and Austria, the e-prescription has been in use for some time. From July 2023 it will also be introduced in Germany. At this point, you can redeem your e-prescriptions either through the e-prescription app or in paper form. Another option is to use the e-prescription via the electronic health card. The issue of prescription drugs is to be simplified in this way, but it cannot do anything about delivery bottlenecks and drug emergencies.
How does it work with the e-prescription?
In the practice or during a video consultation, the doctor creates an electronic prescription after the examination. A prescription code is generated, which is required for redemption in the pharmacy. You can either open this code directly in the e-prescription app or alternatively have it printed out in practice. In this way, the prescription is digitized and enables convenient processing in the pharmacy.
This is how you get the new e-prescription from the doctor:
The electronic prescription is created by your doctor using software in the practice management system. The same information is recorded as on the previous pink paper recipe, namely:
Your patient data
the data of the doctor
the prescribed drugs or active ingredients
dosage instructions
The digital prescription is transmitted in encrypted form to the central e-prescription server. A so-called e-prescription token is automatically generated for each e-prescription. This token contains the code you need to redeem the prescription at the pharmacy.
So at the doctor’s office, you no longer receive a physical pink prescription, just the e-prescription token.
What is an e-prescription?
An e-prescription is a digital prescription code similar to a QR code. This code can either be opened in the smartphone app “The E-Recipe” or given as a printout from the doctor’s office. The code contains all the information about the prescribed drug and can be redeemed in the pharmacy just like the conventional pink prescription slips and is intended to replace them in the future.
When will the e-prescription become mandatory?
It should be quick, but there is still uncertainty as to whether all medical practices will be technically prepared to issue e-prescriptions at the starting point on July 1, 2023. From January 1, 2024, however, this will be mandatory. From this point in time, all medical practices in Germany must be able to issue e-prescriptions. According to plans by the Federal Ministry of Health, the e-prescription – how the electronic patient record – be mandatory from 2024.
What do I need for the e-prescription?
If you want to use the e-recipe in digital form instead of having it printed out, you need a smartphone and the “E-Recipe” app, which can be downloaded from the Apple Store or Google Play Store. To use the app, you also need a newer electronic health card and the insured person’s PIN, which is provided by the health insurance company on request. The procedure is set to become simpler in the future: patients can then simply redeem their e-prescriptions in the pharmacy by having their electronic health card scanned.
Where can I redeem the e-prescription?
Like the previous paper prescription, the e-prescription can be redeemed in a pharmacy or an online pharmacy. All pharmacies in Germany are already prepared to redeem e-prescriptions. The goal of the federal government is to connect 80 percent of all pharmacies in Germany to the system by the end of July. Which Pharmacies in your area are already e-prescription-ready are easy to find out with an app search.