Gemalto qualifies for Germany's 80m healthcare smartcard programme
12 January 2007 Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Gemalto (Euronext
NL0000400653 GTO), has been chosen to supply its secure microprocessor-based
smartcards to Germany's healthcare programme.
The smartcards are fully compliant with the latest specifications from
Gematik, the organization in charge of defining and approving the German
healthcare infrastructure, which enables the company to deliver cards to the
pilot regions.
Gemalto received first orders to supply and personalize patient cards for
the regions of Bavaria, Baden-Wurttemberg, North Rhine Westphalia and
Saxony. The first trial phase commenced in December 2006, involving 70,000
units in 7 regions. A larger scale experimentation of 300,000 cards is due
to start in 2007, which will be followed by mass deployment. This new
advanced digital healthcare solution aims at reducing administrative costs
and ensuring better delivery of services and benefits to citizens.
The German authorities are implementing this new infrastructure based on
high-end microprocessor cards to provide better quality of service to
insurance beneficiaries while increasing the security of access to personal
data.
This latest-generation card will act as an active security device to
perform strong authentication of the patient therefore contributing to
reducing fraud costs and increasing privacy. It will enable access to an
electronic medical file, and will include emergency data such as blood
group, allergies alerts and ongoing treatments records.
In addition, the new health card will be able to carry electronic
prescriptions, which will reduce significantly paperwork. Authorized
healthcare professionals can read personal information only if the patient
consents by entering the card's Personal Identification Number. The
health card should make about 700 million handwritten prescriptions
redundant.
For insurance funds, the deployment of this new generation of highly
secure health cards will significantly trim administrative and operational
costs. It will avoid duplicate examinations and lessen unnecessary use of
healthcare services. Furthermore, by allowing automatic data update once the
card is in the field, the new system will enable insurance funds to decrease
their cost of ownership and optimize their investments.
"The healthcare sector has tremendous growth potential and we are really
pleased to enable secure and convenient solutions for citizens of Germany"
commented Jacques Seneca, President Europe at Gemalto. "Our strong historic
presence in Germany and our high level of commitment to this project,
combined with our experiences in similar programs around the world has
prepared us well in this market."
The German government is launching what it describes as the most
extensive e-health project in the world, involving 80 million patients,
350,000 doctors and dentists, 2,000 hospitals and 22,000 pharmacies.
The German health service is highly decentralized, with some 250
different insurance companies, each having their own infrastructure and
supply process. Around 90% of the population is covered by the state health
insurance and the rest opt for private medical insurance.
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