TY - JOUR
T1 - Germany’s digital health reforms in the COVID-19 era
T2 - lessons and opportunities for other countries
AU - Gerke, Sara
AU - Stern, Ariel D.
AU - Minssen, Timo
N1 - Funding Information:
S.G. and T.M. research for this contribution was supported by a Novo Nordisk Foundation-grant for a scientifically independent Collaborative Research Programme in Biomedical Innovation Law (grant agreement number NNF17SA0027784). T.M. further acknowledges support by the University of Copenhagen’s DATA + pool, which supports multi-disciplinary projects involving data science (Strategy 2023 funds), and support by the Wallenberg Foundations’ “Initiative for Humanistic and Social Scientific Research in AI and Autonomous Systems” (WASP-HS). A.D.S. acknowledges support from the Kauffman Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, The Author(s).
PY - 2020/12/1
Y1 - 2020/12/1
N2 - Reimbursement is a key challenge for many new digital health solutions, whose importance and value have been highlighted and expanded by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Germany’s new Digital Healthcare Act (Digitale–Versorgung–Gesetz or DVG) entitles all individuals covered by statutory health insurance to reimbursement for certain digital health applications (i.e., insurers will pay for their use). Since Germany, like the United States (US), is a multi-payer health care system, the new Act provides a particularly interesting case study for US policymakers. We first provide an overview of the new German DVG and outline the landscape for reimbursement of digital health solutions in the US, including recent changes to policies governing telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then discuss challenges and unanswered questions raised by the DVG, ranging from the limited scope of the Act to privacy issues. Lastly, we highlight early lessons and opportunities for other countries.
AB - Reimbursement is a key challenge for many new digital health solutions, whose importance and value have been highlighted and expanded by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Germany’s new Digital Healthcare Act (Digitale–Versorgung–Gesetz or DVG) entitles all individuals covered by statutory health insurance to reimbursement for certain digital health applications (i.e., insurers will pay for their use). Since Germany, like the United States (US), is a multi-payer health care system, the new Act provides a particularly interesting case study for US policymakers. We first provide an overview of the new German DVG and outline the landscape for reimbursement of digital health solutions in the US, including recent changes to policies governing telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then discuss challenges and unanswered questions raised by the DVG, ranging from the limited scope of the Act to privacy issues. Lastly, we highlight early lessons and opportunities for other countries.
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U2 - 10.1038/s41746-020-0306-7
DO - 10.1038/s41746-020-0306-7
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32685700
AN - SCOPUS:85087753439
SN - 2398-6352
VL - 3
JO - npj Digital Medicine
JF - npj Digital Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - 94
ER -