Digital Demands: An Overview of the Journey Toward Access and Reimbursement in the German Statutory Health Insurance

Digitization is inherent to the technological innovation in the future of health care, and relatedly, health-insurance coverage. It also makes inherent demands upon healthcare systems. Germany has long sought to incorporate the ever-changing elements of digitization into its system services and structures. This paper explores the development and status of digitization in the German statutory health-insurance system. After first providing the context of the system in which digitization is occurring, the paper provides an overview of significant legislative efforts to promote digitization in the healthcare sector. It highlights the German experience with integrating digital health applications into the statutory health-insurance system as an example to illustrate the challenge of implementing new digital services in German healthcare, before offering considerations for the future.