BIG direkt gesund, the BundesInnungskrankenkasse founded in Dortmund in 1996, which has always stood for innovation, efficiency, consistency and speed, has joined the e-prescription project of the Techniker Krankenkasse (TK), after Barmer Ersatzkasse, DAK-Gesundheit and Hanseatische Krankenkasse (HEK) had already joined the cooperation in order to enable uncomplicated medication supply for people using smartphones. At BIG, 412,000 insured persons could soon benefit from the electronic option of simple and uncomplicated prescription. Across Germany, up to 26 million insured people who are members of the five health insurance companies, i.e. 35 per cent of all those insured under the statutory health insurance scheme, could then benefit from the system. Approximately 40,000 doctors are also involved in the innovative TC project, who will only need to receive the necessary software so that it can finally start in 2022 without complications. Until then, BIG can still gain some experience in handling e-prescriptions in the ongoing digitalization process, which could replace about 450 million paper prescriptions. The insured also has to learn the entire process first. All they need is a smartphone. By the end of this year at the latest, the corresponding app will be available, which only needs to be downloaded. The doctor issues the e-prescription and the insured receives the prescription with a suitable QR code on his or her terminal device. He then goes to the pharmacy, which scans the code and dispenses the medication once. The advantage is that follow-up prescriptions for chronically ill insured persons no longer need to be issued directly by the doctor. Medicines can also be pre-ordered at the pharmacy so that they are directly available. The partner e-project of TK, which BIG has joined, is a real gain, especially in terms of digitalization and resource conservation, explains the CEO of BIG direkt gesund, Peter Kaetsch, in a statement.
