e-Health Act 2015: Opportunity not taken

19.02.2015 21:54

The German Society for Telemedicine welcomes the draft of an e-health law, but warns that the opportunity for a breakthrough in telemedicine was not taken advantage of and is submitting a detailed statement to the BMG.

In a statement from DGTelemed, the draft bill is generally welcomed, but at the same time it is criticized for the fact that the intention to promote telemedicine services is only marginally implemented. Unfortunately, it only appears as a side note in various places in the draft bill. The draft law also does not attempt to adapt the benefit assessment of telemedical services to current medical and technological developments. The draft law simply provides for the introduction of a fixed fee for hospitals and doctors when they create an electronic discharge letter in practice. “However, this is not enough to use outpatient telemedicine services in particular,” emphasizes Wolfgang Loos, managing board member, in his assessment of the draft.

Promote telemedical services sustainably

In some regions, especially in rural areas, medical care can hardly be guaranteed without telemedicine. However, telemedical services are becoming increasingly important against the background of strengthening cross-sector cooperation between doctors and the care of insured persons, especially in sparsely populated regions. They must therefore be included in the uniform assessment standard and supported with surcharges. The draft law also does not draw any conclusions from the failure to fulfill the statutory audit mandate from the 2012 Supply Structure Act - a further audit will be stipulated until 2017 without penalty. From DGTelemed's point of view, what is long overdue is a legal regulation on how non-fulfillment of legislative mandates by self-governing bodies can be sanctioned and how these can be implemented even in the event of inaction.

Address and eliminate obstacles to rapid implementation

In order to advance and accelerate the implementation of telemedical services into standard care in the outpatient sector, the German Society for Telemedicine considers it necessary to address and eliminate major obstacles to the rapid implementation of telemedical services into standard care. Such obstacles are: an extensive ban on remote treatment, although the German Medical Association has only decided on a ban on exclusive remote treatment, missing or not really effective sanctions in the event of inaction by self-governing bodies despite legal mandates, the undifferentiated demand for randomized, controlled studies to prove benefits telemedical applications and the decision of the Federal Joint Committee to require developers of telemedical applications to exclusively finance the evaluation.

Guarantee the right to equality of living conditions

In the opinion of DGTelemed, the acceleration of the implementation of telemedicine applications that have been positively assessed is also constitutionally necessary: Articles 3 and 20 of the Basic Law contain, among other things, the constitutional requirement for state organs to ensure equality of living conditions for all citizens? regardless of where you live? to ensure. The right to equal living conditions also includes the right to and access to equivalent health care. “This claim is violated, for which stroke care offers an example: While the examination and care of stroke patients has been substantially improved in some regions of Germany through nationwide telemedicine stroke networks, in other regions it depends on chance whether and how quickly stroke patients are admitted to a hospital with stroke Unit to be brought,” says Prof. Dr. Hans-Jochen Brauns, CEO of DGTelemed.

Suggestions for solutions and changes are made

The statement also makes suggestions for changes and solutions, such as: B. the Medicines Advertising Act (HWG) or the Fifth Book of the Social Security Code. Proposals to eliminate legal uncertainty in connection with the ban on remote treatment were formulated in collaboration with the law firm Dierks + Bohle, Berlin.