Up to now, the long-term care insurance has only taken over digital assistance systems to a limited extent, namely if they were listed in the list of aids in the health and long-term care insurance, as in the example of home emergency call systems or certain digital care beds. The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv) would like to integrate these so-called AAL technologies („Ambient-Assisted-Living“) for old and sick people via a reimbursement claim for digital health applications and care assistants in the everyday life of these people so that care costs can be saved by stays in nursing homes. The vzbv has commissioned a legal opinion on this issue, which is being prepared by the law firm Dierks + Company. According to this report, it should be possible to reimburse the digital assistance systems within the scope of the nursing aid claim pursuant to §40 SGB XI if proof of the benefits of the digital nursing assistants for maintaining mobility, self-care, housekeeping or cognitive and communicative skills is provided. Furthermore, the digital benefit assessment can be extended to the independent handling of disease-specific requirements and burdens, so that self-financing is excluded. The Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) should, therefore, set the pace by assessing and regulating the digital benefit assessment in analogy to the benefit assessment in the German Social Code Book V. The proof of the digital health applications (DiGA) on benefit assessment leads to the fact that the nursing care insurance has to take over the costs of the AAL technologies for affected persons, according to the law firm. The digital assistance systems, which would then include, for example, location, emergency call and fall recognition systems, but also warning systems for taking medication and food, would then no longer belong to the lifestyle and smart home technologies for self-payers, but would fall under the category of „digital warning systems as care assistants for avoiding stays in nursing homes“. This would mean that they would be reimbursable even if healthy people used the technologies in individual cases. Klaus Müller, the member of the vzbv board of directors, sees the use of this opportunity as a financial relief not only for those affected and their relatives but also for the social system of society.
