The statutory health insurance in Germany ...

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…often seems to be a book with 7 seals for foreign employees .

Currently, there are approximately 134 health insurance companies in Germany with nearly 70,000 000 members. The two insurance companies with the highest number of members are the AOK - general local health insurance company with 24,000 000 members and BKK - the company health insurance Mobil Oil with roundabout 11,000 000 members.

A person who moves to Germany for his job usually is confused about making the choice between so many health insurance companies. Not only that he often comes from countries where the health system is organized completely different, he has to decide which one oft he numerous company fits best his needs.

MOVES consulting offers to  its customers an information service that provides customers with first information on how the German health care system is set up and what services it offers.

We inform the Expat about what services the insurer reimburse . How the billing system between the patient, physician and health insurance works. What will happen if a specialist  has to be consulted, or if a hospital stay is needed.

Currently we inform our customers about the new electronic health card – that will be mandatory in Germany from  1.1. 2014.

Objective is the digital networking of patient information with service providers (insurance companies , doctors, other health professionals , pharmacies , hospitals, rehabilitation facilities ect. ) in order to save costs.

With the eGK the health insurance system will become more modern and more uniform.

While on the KVK only small data could be stored, the health card will be capable of storing medical prescriptions (so-called e-prescription ), and the credentials for EU foreigners (so-called European Health Insurance Card ) .

In addition, the health card will be suitable to support the following optional applications, particularly data collection , processing and use of

1 medical data , unless they are required for emergency care ( emergency care data)

2 the so-called electronic medical report ,

3 Information to verify the safe drug treatment (personal drug risks and intolerances )

4 the so-called electronic patient record ,

5 more of that person or for them provided data ( patient compartment) , as well as

6 Data on unused services and preliminary costs for the insured .

It can , because the space on the electronic health card is limited ( 32 kB) , save only up to 8 electronic prescriptions and emergency data on the health card itself. The other volunteer applications, such as a medical record is stored on servers in the telematic infrastructure.

To avoid abuse, all data will be included on the health card that were already stored on the KVK

1 The name of the issuing insurance , including an identifier for physicians' association , the district in which the insured is domiciled

2 photo

3 Surname and first name of the insured

4 date of birth

5 sex

6 address

7 Health insurance number

8 Insurance status , for insured groups according to § 267 paragraph 2, sentence 4 in an encrypted form

9 payment status

10 Date of commencement of insurance cover

11 in the limited validity of the card the date of the expiry

Sources: BMG , AOK, Wikipedia

Autor: Kornelia Epping