Aids Directive: Amendments to make regulations easier for people with disabilities

Berlin. The amendments to the Medical Aids Directive , approved by the Federal Joint Committee and intended to accelerate the provision of care to insured persons with severe, complex, or multiple disabilities, came into effect on Friday. The revised regulations contain many clarifications and several innovations for contracted physicians.

In line with the advances in digitalization, it is clarified, for example, that the requirements of the directive also apply to electronic prescriptions and that prescriptions for medical aids can be issued during video consultations. A prescription is also permissible after a telephone consultation if, among other things, the doctor has "already established the current state of health during direct personal treatment or a video consultation and no further determination of prescription-relevant information is required."

Practices are now explicitly permitted to supplement the prescription with further "specifying documents." The previous requirement to only "prescribe using the agreed-upon forms" has been relaxed. Also new is that physicians may now even use "external findings or, if available, a participation plan" to determine the need. (juk)