Professional groups such as doctors, pharmacists and psychotherapists need an electronic health professional card (eHBA) to access services in the “secure health network” (telematics infrastructure, TI). The issuance of further eHBAs has stalled, according to information from the German Medical Association.
Physicians have the most extensive access rights with the eHBA and need it for e-prescriptions, electronic certificates of incapacity for work (eAU), the e-mail service KIM (communication in medicine) and to provide medical documents with a qualified electronic signature, and to import documents into to upload the electronic patient record.
1,200 eHBAs were issued in July and August – around 6,800 in June alone. Inquiries to those responsible about the reasons for the delayed distribution are pending.
According to the Ärzteblatt, around 78 percent of all doctors in outpatient care have an eHBA, and 61 percent are significantly fewer among clinicians – although the latter need it less often because they do not necessarily have to identify themselves in the TI. At the end of August, the distribution of eHBA was 56 percent.
