DPtV supports the Federal Data Protection Commissioner's ePA criticism
20.08.2020 18:17
“The Federal Data Protection Commissioner Prof. Kelber confirms our criticism of the electronic patient file (ePA) planned in the Patient Data Protection Act (PDSG),” says Gebhard Hentschel, Federal Chairman of the German Psychotherapists Association (DPtV). According to Kelber, the health insurance companies would be violating the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) if they used the ePA in accordance with the PDSG standard. He therefore announced extensive measures. “In the draft, patients still cannot determine who should be able to view which data. In addition, the data is not secure when accessed via smartphone or tablet. The Federal Council should not approve the law in this form on September 2nd and call the mediation committee so that these grievances can be remedied,” demands Hentschel.
Differentiated authorization management is important
“Patients will only accept the ePA if data protection is convincingly guaranteed and they themselves decide what happens to their data,” emphasizes the Federal Chairman. Psychotherapeutic data in particular could easily be misused. “With the start of the ePA, it must be possible for insured persons to make selected documents available to individual doctors/psychotherapists. So far, only blanket access to all data is provided." Although use via tablet or smartphone can be practical, it represents significantly lower security compared to other telematics infrastructure (TI). "We expect secure and sustainable concepts from politicians here “that are still missing,” demands psychotherapist Hentschel. According to the DPtV, this law cannot be approved without clear regulations on data protection and informational self-determination. It would be a step towards abandoning important data protection principles in the health sector.
Warning to the health insurance companies
Prof. Kelber announced that he would officially warn health insurance companies before January 1, 2021 that the ePA is contrary to European law. He wants to oblige them to offer a highly secure authentication process by May 2021 and to find a GDPR-compliant solution by December 2022. In the meantime, Kelber wants to send a warning text to all insured parties.