Next setback for the e-prescription: The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Westphalia-Lippe (KVWL) is suspending the introduction of electronic prescriptions. The doctors’ association announced on Thursday in Dortmund that the attitude of the Federal Data Protection Commissioner made it necessary to do this.

Their dentist counterpart is also no longer continuing the project. The data protection officer Ulrich Kelber (SPD) had vetoed the plan to use insurance cards in September. Westfalen-Lippe is the only pilot region in Germany where the e-prescription should be introduced on a large scale. At the beginning of September, 250 practices joined, this number should be increased gradually – but this is no longer happening.

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So far, you can only call up the e-prescription via your cell phone or via a printout. You need a PIN from your health insurance company for an app – you can only get this after personal verification at your health insurance company or in the post office. Apparently, the procedure is too tedious for many, and there were only a few applications for the PIN.

There is a lot of skepticism about the e-prescription among the medical profession

The sluggish introduction is made more difficult by the fact that there is great skepticism among the medical profession. Only around 525,000 digital prescriptions have been redeemed so far this year. For comparison: In Germany, around 500 million prescriptions are issued as pink slips of paper every year – so the proportion of digital prescriptions is negligible.

Access to the digital prescription via the app can be practical, for example if you have attended a video consultation and the doctor does not have to send a paper prescription by post afterwards. The digital prescription does not apply to privately insured persons.

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Although all practices in Germany can offer the e-prescription on a voluntary basis, the product is far from being used across the board. With the pilot region of Westphalia-Lippe, digital prescribing was to gain new impetus – the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians there had agreed to actively support the introduction and gradually involve more practices. Schleswig-Holstein should also move forward, but broke off this practice project because the state data protection officer there had expressed concerns about the planned use of SMS and e-mails.

In the case of Westfalen-Lippe, the Federal Data Protection Commissioner had feared that there could be data misuse in pharmacies in the planned form. He identified a security vulnerability that could “allow attackers unauthorized access to the e-prescription service with the e-prescriptions stored there,” as stated in his September decision. Necessary technical upgrades with updates for connectors – i.e. routers – and the pharmacy software will probably last until mid-2023. The KVWL did not want to wait that long and now pulled the ripcord.

“The decision of the data protection officer is a declaration of bankruptcy for digitization in the health care system in general and especially in outpatient care,” said KVWL board member Thomas Müller. The goal that 25 percent of all prescriptions from those with statutory health insurance are made electronically cannot be achieved. The decision of the data protection officer calls into question the desired progress for patients, doctors and all other parties involved.

In its digitization strategy, the federal government has set the goal that the e-prescription is “established as the standard” by 2025. In view of the serious initial difficulties, it is uncertain whether this goal will be achieved. A spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health said on Thursday that the KVWL’s decision was regretted. However, the introduction of the e-prescription is continuing and it can continue to be used nationwide. “In the middle of next year we will enable the use of e-prescriptions with a simpler and more secure solution.”

The pilot project for the e-prescription in Berlin-Brandenburg came to nothing

The switch from paper prescriptions to digital prescriptions is a major project in the German health care system that has had initial problems. A pilot project in Berlin-Brandenburg took place last year…