FAQ

The e-prescription will be introduced in a test phase in the Berlin-Brandenburg focus region in July 2021. The pharmacies’ systems need to be updated so that they can process the e-prescription. Therefore, it may occasionally be the case that a pharmacy cannot accept the e-prescription during a transitional period. All pharmacies will be able to process e-prescriptions as of 1 January 2022. There will be an overview of which medical practices and pharmacies are taking part in the test for the participants in the Berlin-Brandenburg focus region during the test phase.

The e-prescription is also available as a paper printout with a code for each e-prescription. You will receive the printout at the doctor’s surgery and can take it to the pharmacy or you can send the printout by post to a mail-order pharmacy.

Wenn Sie die E-Rezept-App der gematik nutzen, haben Sie zwei Optionen:

1. Direkt einlösen: Sie gehen einfach in eine Apotheke und zeigen mit der App den Rezeptcode vor und erhalten das Arzneimittel.
2. Vorab online einlösen: Sie können das E-Rezept über die App auch online in einer Apotheke einlösen. Wählen Sie aus, ob Sie das Medikament abholen möchten oder einen Botendienst anfragen. Wenn die Apotheke einen Versand anbietet, können Sie die Bestellung auch über den Webshop abschließen und sich die Medikamente zusenden lassen.

Yes. You can have the e-prescription printed out in the doctor’s surgery and sent to the mail-order pharmacy by post as before. Alternatively, you can submit the e-prescription via the e-prescription app. Select the desired mail-order pharmacy during the redemption process (for example using the search function). You can then order the medication in the mail-order pharmacy’s webshop.

Yes. If you have a printout of a prescription, you can show it at the pharmacy and redeem it. You can also scan the prescription codes in your e-prescription app and then show them at the pharmacy.

Yes. If you assign the prescription to a specific pharmacy in the e-prescription app, you redeem it there. The pharmacy will order or reserve the medication for you. The pharmacy can use the app to let you know when you can pick up the medication. 

Each individual line on the prescription is an e-prescription and can therefore be redeemed separately. You will receive a prescription code for each individual e-prescription (in the e-prescription app or on the printout).

It is called: “Das E-Rezept”.

The app is available from the Apple App Store (iOS), from Google Play (Android) and from the AppGallery (Android on Huawei devices). You can download it for free.

The e-prescription app runs on all smartphones with Android 7 or iOS 15 and above. The smartphone must support near field communication (NFC) in order to be able to use all of the app’s functions. The app checks whether your smartphone supports this technology during the login process.

The app is initially available in German, English and Turkish. Further language versions in Polish, Russian and Arabic will follow.

No, not yet. However, we will implement this function soon.

For reasons of data protection, this app uses your health data sparingly. To prevent too much information about you falling into the hands of unauthorised persons, for example if you lose the paper printout of the e-prescription, only the information that is absolutely necessary for redemption in a pharmacy is displayed.

In the app, select a pharmacy that offers “delivery service” as a service option. You can find this by entering the name of the pharmacy you want or by filtering the search results for “delivery service”. If you tap on “Delivery via delivery service”, the list of all the prescriptions to be redeemed and your registration address will be displayed as the delivery address. You can unselect any medication that you may not wish to redeem in this pharmacy. You must supply a telephone number in case of queries. If you tap the “Redeem” button, your prescriptions will be sent to the pharmacy. The pharmacy will of course contact you afterwards to notify you about the delivery time and other general conditions.

That depends on your pharmacy. In any case, your pharmacy can send you messages via the e-prescription app.

Pharmacies can send messages to users of the e-prescription app.

In the app, select a pharmacy that offers “mail order” as a service option. You can find this by entering the name of the mail-order pharmacy you want or by filtering the search results for “mail order”. If you tap on “Delivery via mail order”, a list of all the e-prescriptions and your registration address will be displayed as the delivery address. You can unselect any medication that you may not wish to redeem in this pharmacy. If you tap the “Redeem” button, your prescriptions will be sent to the pharmacy. You will then receive a message on the homepage of the app that these prescriptions have now been placed in your shopping cart on the pharmacy’s webshop. NOTE: It may take a few minutes for this notice to appear on the homepage depending on how fast the mail-order pharmacy system is. Now tap on the “Open shopping cart” button to complete your order.

The e-prescription app offers you three options for this:

1. Enter the name of a pharmacy in the pharmacy search (e.g. Adeler Apotheke or Internet Pharmacy XY).
2. Search via an address (such as Friedrichstrasse Berlin).
3. If you share your geolocation, pharmacies are shown sorted by distance.

You also have the option of filtering pharmacies by criteria such as “currently open” or “offers delivery service”.

Yes. gematik makes no stipulations concerning products offered for sale in pharmacies’ webshops.

We are planning to integrate this feature into the app very soon. Users of the e-prescription should both see the history of the pharmacies last used and be able to set up regular pharmacies.

Not yet at the start of the test phase on 1 July 2021. This function is to be introduced in the second half of the year.

Yes. The e-prescription app has been optimised for use with a reading function and screen readers.

Yes. You can also find pharmacies by entering their name or address. In addition, search results can be narrowed down further using filters.

No. The amount of the supplementary charge varies between health insurance providers and is determined by what are known as discount agreements. These are not displayed in the e-prescription app.

All e-prescriptions are stored in the telematics infrastructure specialist service for 100 days after they have been redeemed in the pharmacy. You can also download the e-prescriptions with another device within this period if necessary. It is important that you authenticate yourself on the new phone using your NFC-enabled medical card.

Yes. If you have received an alternative medicine at the pharmacy, this will be indicated in the prescription details in the app. If the directions for use have not been updated, the app will inform you that they may have changed. In addition, the changes are also displayed in the log data of the prescription details.

Yes. The app shows you how long you can normally redeem a prescription in a pharmacy – with subsidisation from your health insurance provider. On expiry of this period, the app informs you how long you can still redeem the prescription as a private prescription. Then you are a self-pay patient and are no longer eligible to be subsidised by your health insurance provider.

No. Push notifications cannot currently be received via the app.

Subscribers who use the app without registering via the medical card can delete prescriptions individually from their smartphone. If you have registered with your medical card, you also have access to the server (specialist service) in the telematics infrastructure on which the e-prescriptions are saved. You can then also delete the e-prescriptions from the prescription server. NOTE: E-prescriptions are automatically deleted from the prescription server 100 days after redemption. However, there are plans for subscribers to be able to synchronise the prescription and dispensing data from the e-prescriptions with their e-patient files and save them there permanently.

This is possible on consultation with the pharmacy.

As long as the pharmacy has not yet taken any steps to redeem it, they can return a prescription as a goodwill gesture. There is currently no automatic return request function in the app. Please contact the pharmacy to take the prescription back.

There is currently no automatic return request function in the e-prescription app. We must therefore ask you to contact the pharmacy so that the prescription can be returned to you if necessary.

Unfortunately not yet.

Recommendations from your doctor (green prescription) will also be managed via the app in the future. If your pharmacy offers a link to a webshop after a prescription-only medicine has been assigned, you can also add other non-prescription medicines to your order.

No. An overview of all your medication is required for a check for interactions with other substances, yet the app only manages current e-prescriptions. For qualified information, please contact your trusted pharmacy.

No. This function is not currently planned.

Your data will only be saved on your device. We do not make backup copies in iCloud, Google Cloud or a comparable service. If you lose your phone, all information about redeemed prescriptions that are more than 100 days old will also be lost.  You can also download currently valid e-prescriptions with another device if necessary. It is important that you authenticate yourself on the new phone using your NFC-enabled medical card.

If you have authenticated yourself with your NFC-enabled medical card, the e-prescription app contains personal medical information. gematik therefore recommends protecting it from unauthorised access. For example, you can use a biometric access block to secure the launch of the app.

The e-prescription data is encrypted and stored on servers of the telematics infrastructure (health network), which are located in a secure data centre. Certain “keys” are required to process the e-prescription. These are generated by a technical module (hardware security module) that provides hardware-based protection for sensitive data, meaning that the operator of the e-prescription service has no access to the generated keys. In other words: only you, the prescribing doctor and the pharmacy to whom you have given access via e-prescription app or printout can view your data.

E-prescriptions are automatically deleted 100 days after redemption (in accordance with section 360 (6) German Social Code volume V (SGB V). Subscribers can delete their e-prescription themselves – even without the e-prescription being redeemed. E-prescriptions that have not been redeemed are automatically deleted ten days after the prescription expires (date of prescription issue + 92 calendar days).

The e-prescriptions are encrypted during transport from the e-prescription specialist service to the e-prescription app via a transport layer security connection. An additional transport lock is installed to ensure that even the provider of the e-prescription service does not have sight of the e-prescriptions being transferred. It extends into the trustworthy execution environment to which the provider of the e-prescription service itself has no access.

The e-prescriptions are encrypted and transmitted from the doctor’s surgery to a central service, where they are stored and processed in encrypted form and then retrieved from the pharmacy in encrypted form. This protects the e-prescriptions from unauthorised access. Additionally, only people who have the prescription code (e-prescription token) can retrieve an e-prescription. This may be the subscriber, a representative or the pharmacy. The prescribing doctor may delete an e-prescription in justified cases.

This is ensured by two measures: first, the components of the e-prescription are checked by independent experts before they can be used. Second, gematik monitors compliance with data protection and security by technical systems and by people who regularly conduct audits at the operator of the e-prescription service. The independent experts prepare a product report for the e-prescription service as well as a security report on the secure operation of the e-prescription service provider. Further, the provider must demonstrate by means of a further expert opinion that it is capable of developing secure software. These reports are reviewed by gematik. For the e-prescription app, gematik (in accordance with German Patient Data Protection Act (PDSG) or section 360 (5) German Social Code volume V (SGB V)) commissions a security report, which is then reviewed by the Federal Office for Information Security and gematik. This report also includes the app’s interfaces to the e-prescription specialist service and the identity provider. All reports must be renewed regularly. Permanent security monitoring is in place to be able to detect attacks on the e-prescription service in good time. This is carried out by gematik together with the provider of the e-prescription specialist service. If the provider detects any security incidents, it must inform gematik accordingly. In addition to this ongoing technical monitoring, regular audits take place in which gematik checks whether the provider of the e-prescription service is complying with the specifications.

The status of the e-prescription is stored centrally in the health network (telematics infrastructure), meaning that it cannot be redeemed multiple times. The status is changed as soon as a pharmacy has redeemed an e-prescription, precluding a second redemption.

The doctor applies a qualified electronic signature to the e-prescription. This corresponds to the signature on today’s paper prescriptions. In contrast to the handwritten signature, it is virtually impossible to forge the qualified electronic signature. The pharmacy can use the qualified electronic signature to reliably determine who issued the e-prescription and whether the content of the e-prescription has been changed without authorisation.

No. Only the prescribing doctor and the pharmacy of your choice can view the e-prescription. If you have shared the prescription electronically with a third person, they can also see the prescription, provided they are logged into the e-prescription app.

Data about your usage behaviour is only collected anonymously and only if you agree. This includes: session duration, screen IDs, dwell time on session IDs, actions (such as cancel buttons), information about the operating system and device information.

Statistically meaningful information helps the development team to identify vulnerabilities in the user experience. Are interactions with the app successfully completed or are there high cancellation rates? Are functions used or ignored? Is the app running stably or are there increasing numbers of crashes? This information supports product development in setting and reviewing goals and improving the app for the benefit of the subscriber.

Personal data as defined by the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation is neither collected nor stored.

The anonymous raw data remains with gematik.

All data is collected anonymously. gematik cannot therefore produce any person-specific compilations of interactions.

To avoid misuse, prescriptions can only be synchronised after authentication with a medical card or a biometric identity check. We also recommend using a biometric access block to secure the launch of the app.

From 1 January 2022, gematik will provide an application that will also enable the log data to be viewed on a computer.