Vienna and Berlin-based hi.health, a startup that creates an interface between private health insurers and customers by digitally enabling the reimbursement for health services, is launching Europe's first digital health expense account.

The hi.health app allows customers of private health insurances to submit their bills and prescriptions for medical services digitally to their insurance company.

The new health expense account will undertake an immediate reimbursement of costs or the settlement of outstanding bills for members of private health insurers.

WHY IT MATTERS

The startup aims to give privately insured people easier and faster access to health services by reducing bureaucratic processes.

Currently, 8.7 million people in Germany are insured with private health insurance. Around 26.8 million people also have private supplementary insurance.

In contrast to members of statutory health insurances, private health insurances usually do not assume the costs of their members' health services directly, but reimburse them afterwards. In this way, privately insured people initially bear the costs for a medical service themselves, submit bills or prescriptions to their insurance company at a later date and then receive a reimbursement of the costs.

With the new function, the hi.health account aims to enable its users to simplify the organisation of receipts and reimburse costs directly.

Users can set up their health account in the app and have an overview of their current account balance. If an invoice for a health service has already been paid, it can be scanned into the app. The user receives the costs incurred directly from hi.health. The company will then process the reimbursement of costs with the health insurance company. If a service has already been used but has not yet been paid by the insured person, the invoice is also scanned into the hi.health app and paid immediately to the biller.

This process means that users of the hi.health app do not have to pay in advance to their health insurance or hi.health.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Last year, Germany became the first country in the world to prescribe digital apps through DIGA, a process that enables reimbursement through the statutory health system.

So far, 11 out of 56 applications have been successfully approved, with another 21 undergoing the approval process. In March, mental health app Deprexis became the 11^th app to be approved for medical prescription.

In recent news, a document released by the German Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has revealed that despite the invalidated Privacy Shield there are exemptions in place for Germany to allow data storage from digital health applications. MobiHealthNews looked into what this means for DiGA developers and how it affects the cloud provider's business.

ON THE RECORD

Fredrik Debong, co-founder and CSO of hi.health, said: “The expansion of the hi.health app to include the health expense account was the next logical step for us on the way to making communication with insurance for privately insured people as easy and intuitive as possible. We founded hi.health with the vision of removing bureaucratic hurdles in the cost structure for people with private insurance and offering them a contemporary, digital user experience.

"Since our start in 2019, we have already processed more than ten million euros in reimbursements - this shows us that the need on the part of the insured is very high. The health expense account now combines your own health insurance with a mobile banking experience.”

Learn more about the German digital health strategy at the upcoming HIMSS21 European Digital Health Conference on 7-9 June 2021. Click here to find out more information and register. The event is free of charge for employees of health and research institutions.