Frequently asked questions about the E-Rezept

In the first step, only prescriptions for pharmacy-only medicines will be issued electronically. It is planned to expand the E-Rezept in further stages. The next step will be to digitise prescriptions for narcotics and T-prescriptions (prescriptions for certain drugs that may only be dispensed after a detailed medical explanation of the risks involved).

Information about your medication is not currently transferred automatically from the E-Rezept app to another application. However, your doctor or the pharmacy can transfer the information manually to the electronic medication plan. An automated link to the electronic patient record is currently in the planning stage.

Follow-up prescriptions can only be issued if you have already been to the doctor’s surgery in the same quarter and shown your SBK healthcare card there. It is possible to do this during video consultations, where a substitute procedure applies.

Anyone who wants a printout of the E-Rezept is legally entitled to it and can continue to ask their doctor for it. Instead of the familiar pink prescription, you will receive a paper printout with a prescription code. This is then scanned at the pharmacy. 

NFC stands for Near Field Communication and is an interface offered by newer mobile phones for the contactless transfer of information. Try registering in the app; the app will then check whether your mobile phone supports this function.

You can use the E-Rezept app even if you don’t have an SBK healthcare card with NFC technology. The important basic functions of the app are still available:

You can use the E-Rezept app even if you don’t have a smartphone with NFC technology. The important basic functions of the app are still available:

The German Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians has defined what an E-Rezept printout should look like and entail. You can view it here (German only) Alongside one or more E-Rezept codes, the intention is that it should also contain information about the prescribed medication – for example, the issuing doctor, the name and pharma central number (PZN) of the prescribed medication, and the pack size.

The code allows the pharmacy to view the E-Rezept and dispense the medication. You can also scan the code using the E-Rezept app and manage the prescriptions there. Each medication has its own code. In addition, there is a collective code for the complete prescription.

To obtain a new printout, you will need to contact the surgery that issued it. Alternatively, you can view and redeem the prescription in the E-Rezept app.

The prescription is not stored on your SBK healthcare card, but in the secure and protected healthcare data network. The card serves as a kind of key so that the pharmacy can access your prescriptions.

The transmission channel is secure. The German Federal Ministry of Health and gematik are working closely with the authorities responsible for data protection and data security (BfDI, BSI) on the development of digital solutions such as the E-Rezept. The doctor does not store the E-Rezept on the healthcare card itself, but in the secure healthcare data network. The pharmacy accesses it there. The data is transmitted in encrypted form.

You can view the details of the prescriptions in the E-Rezept app when you register there. Alternatively, you have a legal right to a printout of the E-Rezept. If you wish, please speak to your doctor about this.

The pharmacy can always view all E-Rezept prescriptions that are available for dispensing regardless of whether they were issued by different doctor’s surgeries or on different days. However, the pharmacy cannot view prescriptions that have already been dispensed.

An E-Rezept is just as valid as a paper prescription, regardless of how it is redeemed. This means that you can use your healthcare card to redeem your prescriptions until they expire.

Since the SBK healthcare card does not use a PIN to secure the retrieval of an E-Rezept, you must have the card blocked as quickly as possible and apply for a new card.

If you wish to order medication by courier or mail order without visiting the pharmacy first, you must send the prescription code digitally to the pharmacy. You can use the gematik E-Rezept app for this.

Yes, you can also use the E-Rezept app to send the E-Rezept to an online pharmacy. Simply select the desired online pharmacy during the process of redeeming your prescription (e.g. via the search function). You will then receive a link to the shopping cart of the online pharmacy where you can complete the order. The pharmacy will notify you in the app as soon as you can pick up the medication.

Yes, if you have a printed prescription, it can be shown and redeemed at the pharmacy. You can also scan the prescription codes in your E-Rezept app to show it at the pharmacy. In addition, you can use the family function: the prerequisite for this is that the NFC-enabled electronic healthcare card (eGK) and the corresponding PIN for the person concerned have been applied for from the health insurer and have then been registered in the app on the smartphone of the person redeeming it. You can also use the SBK healthcare card of the person concerned to redeem it.

Each individual line of the prescription is an E-Rezept and can therefore be redeemed separately. For this purpose, you will receive an E-Rezept code (in the app or also on the printout) for each individual E-Rezept.

It is not possible to redeem an E-Rezept more than once, because the status of the prescription is stored centrally in the healthcare network. As soon as a pharmacy has dispensed an E-Rezept, the status is changed and it cannot be dispensed again.

This is essentially ensured by two measures:

The audit by independent experts is carried out, on the one hand, by means of a product audit for the E-Rezept specialist service and, on the other hand, by means of a security audit to ensure the secure operation of the provider of the E-Rezept specialist service. In addition, the provider must demonstrate that they are able to develop secure software by means of a further audit. These expert opinions are reviewed by gematik.

A security assessment of the E-Rezept app is commissioned by gematik (in accordance with Section 360, paragraph 5, of the PDSG and SGB V) and reviewed by the BSI and gematik. This expert opinion also includes the app interfaces to the E-Rezept specialist service and the identity provider. All expert opinions must be renewed regularly.

Together with the provider, gematik monitors the E-Rezept specialist service by means of security monitoring in order to detect attacks on the E-Rezept specialist service in good time. If the provider detects security incidents, they must inform gematik.

Regardless of this constant technical monitoring, gematik regularly audits the E-Rezept specialist service provider to ensure that they are complying with gematik’s requirements.

The E-Rezept is provided with a qualified electronic signature (QES) when created by the doctor. This is the equivalent of the doctor signing the current paper prescriptions by hand. Unlike a handwritten signature, a qualified electronic signature cannot be forged. The QES allows the pharmacy to reliably determine who issued the E-Rezept and whether the contents of the E-Rezept have been tampered with.

With the desktop application. It allows you to view the log data on a computer. 

The data from the E-Rezept is stored in encrypted form on the servers of the telematics infrastructure, which are located in a secure data processing centre. The ‘keys’ required to process the E-Rezept are generated by a technical module (HSM) for hardware-based protection of sensitive data, whereby the operator of the specialist service has no access to the generated keys. This means that only the insurant, the issuing doctor and the pharmacy authorised by the app or printout have access to the data.

No. E-Rezept prescriptions can only be viewed by the issuing doctor or selected pharmacy. You, as the patient, choose the pharmacy. If you have shared the prescription electronically with a third party, they can also view the prescription, provided they are registered in the E-Rezept app.

The E-Rezept is encrypted by the doctor’s surgery and transmitted to the E-Rezept specialist service, where it is stored and processed in encrypted form. From there, it is retrieved in encrypted form by the pharmacy, thus ensuring protection against unauthorised access. In addition, people can only access an E-Rezept from the E-Rezept specialist service if they are in possession of the E-Rezept token, which the patient has either received on paper from their doctor or generated electronically via the E-Rezept app. Only if the patient passes on their E-Rezept token to a representative or a pharmacy can these people access the corresponding E-Rezept.