Germany Trade & Invest

Germany Trade & Invest

Digital Health Applications - Health and Safety

Since 2018, the German Ministry of Health has pushed forward a great amount of legislative actions to digitalize the health care system. In 2019, the German parliament passed the Digital Care Act (DVG) to accelerate digitalization and innovation within the German health care market. The act also paves the way to broad usage and reimbursement of digital health applications – so-called “DIGAs.” These steps open up the German health care market to a digital transformation that will provide 73 million insured Germans access to digital health application on prescription.

Digital Health Applications

Individuals with health insurance are entitled to coverage benefits for digital health applications (DIGAs) where those applications meet the following characteristics:

  • Medical products of class I or IIa under MDR
  • Main function is based on digital technologies
  • DIGAs assist the process of detection, monitoring, treatment and alleviation of injuries and compensate diseases and disabilities
  • DIGAs are used either by the patient or jointly by the patient and the care provider, which means application can solely be used for patient treatment