Digital Healthcare in Germany

Digital healthcare is heterogeneous along the entire treatment pathway, ranging from monitoring applications and artificial-intelligence-based diagnostics, to support for virtual reality surgery. Since the introduction of the Digital Health Act in Germany in early 2020, there has been a push toward digital innovative solutions, especially in the outpatient sector.

This book analyzes current digital health law from an economic perspective, combining theory with real-world applications. It examines both the incentives and market access pathways for digital solutions and the price effects brought about by the new regulatory framework in Germany. Further, it discusses the difficulties in pricing due to the monopolistic BfArM register and negotiations with the association of all German health insurance companies.

The book addresses a wide range of topics, including incentives for innovation, specifics of digital health applications, reimbursement and financing options for digital health solutions. Lastly, it presents an outlook for the future and a comparison between Germany and other countries, namely the USA and Japan. Given its scope, this book will appeal to scholars of health economics, healthcare management and public health, as well as practitioners and professionals in the public health sector.

Dr. Walzer works in reimbursement and pricing since 2004 and is the founder and CEO of MArS Market Access & Pricing Strategy GmbH based in Germany. He is a member of various societies including the German Head Association of Digital health Care (SVDGV) and Bitkom. Additionally, he invented a virtual reality platform to prepare price negotiations with the GKV-SV in Germany. He received a MSc in Economics from the University of Tübingen (Germany), a PhD from the University of Zurich (Switzerland) and a Diploma in Clinical Trials from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (UK). He teaches reimbursement and pricing for health applications at the State University Baden-Wuerttemberg, and the University of Applied Sciences Weingarten-Ravensburg (both Germany).