Germany

On March 26, 2024, the “Digital Law – DigiG” (Law to accelerate the digitalization of the healthcare system) came into force, leading a line of changes concerning the G-BA Innovation Fund: the Fund becomes permanent and also the funding procedure for the projects dedicated to the new forms of care changes.

On March 22, 2024, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the determined funding priorities for projects on new forms of care (for single-stage process – open topic and for two-stage process – nine topics).

On March 7, 2024, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV) informed that it had reached an agreement with the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) regarding the billing of the hybrid DRGs. The agreement applies retroactively from January 1, 2024.

On February 26, 2023, the InEK (Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System) published the updated DRG catalog (Fallpauschalen-Katalog) with the list of DRGs and additional reimbursement categories (ZEs) for 2024.

On January 19, 2024, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decision recommending the transfer to standard care for another completed project. The project evaluated the web-based initial assessment tool SmED in outpatient emergency care.

Between mid-January 2024 and mid-February 2024, three more health apps were introduced in the Directory of digital health applications (DiGAs) at the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and thus became reimbursable. These apps can be prescribed by physicians and psychotherapists and will be reimbursed by health insurers. In total, 56 health apps are currently available in the DiGA Directory, and six health apps were delisted from the Directory.

On January 30, 2024, the Institute for the Hospital Remuneration System (InEK) published the list of the requests for innovation funding (NUB) that were submitted by the hospitals in 2023. The medical technologies of cardiovascular, ENT, extracorporeal, gastrointestinal, neuromodulation, and other technology groups obtained positive status 1.

Between early September 2023 and mid-January 2024, four more health apps were introduced in the Directory of digital health applications (DiGAs) at the Federal Office for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and thus became reimbursable. These apps can be prescribed by physicians and psychotherapists and will be reimbursed by health insurers. In total, 53 health apps are currently available in the DiGA Directory, and six health apps were delisted from the Directory.

On December 20, 2023, the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Funds (GKV-Spitzenverband) announced that from January 1, 2024, the catalog for ambulatory operations in hospitals (AOP catalog) will be significantly expanded – 171 interventional procedures will be included in the catalog.

On December 15, 2023, the Innovation Committee at the Federal Joint Committee (G-BA) published the decisions recommending the transfer to standard care for another three completed projects. Two projects evaluated the decision support tools for the BRCA1/2 mutation carriers. The third project analyzed the healthcare provided for patients with congenital heart defects.

In late November – early December 2023, the application period for 2025 ICD-10-GM (German modification of ICD-10 diagnosis codes), OPS (procedure codes), and DRG changes was opened by the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) and the Institute for Hospital Remuneration Systems (INeK) respectively.

On December 21, 2023, the revised EBM (German Uniform Evaluation Standard) catalog for the first quarter of 2024 was published. The most significant changes concern the update of Annex 2 of the catalog, the introduction of the new EBM codes for external electrical cardioversion in adult and pediatric patients, follow-up and evaluation of the health app companion patella, as well as a companion diagnostics test for genotyping to determine CYP2C19 metabolism status.