Authentidate Technology used to create German electronic health insurance card
15 January, 2007
category: Health
Authentidate International, the German subsidiary of New Jersey-based Authentidate Holding Corp., has been tasked with developing an electronic health insurance card in Germany that, at six million cards, is expected to be the largest smart card project in Europe.
DUSSELDORF, Germany and BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J.–Authentidate Holding Corp. announced that its German subsidiary, Authentidate International AG, will develop a Card and Application Management System (CAMS) on a subcontract basis for both ISKV, a leading provider of healthcare information systems in Germany and Deutsche Angestellten-Krankenkasse (DAK), the second largest health insurance company in Germany.
CAMS will form the basis of an electronic health insurance card to be issued by DAK. By integrating the development into the largest Smart Card project in Europe, DAK has achieved significant progress for itself and its partner health insurance companies towards the introduction of an electronic health insurance card for Germany.
ISKV was commissioned to implement various basic components for the extensive project within the context of a European-wide invitation to bid.
ISKV’s long-standing strategic partner, Authentidate, is supporting ISKV on a number of fronts, particularly in connection with software development and special services required for the Card and Application Management System.
With this project, DAK is a forerunner for the nationwide introduction of the electronic health insurance card in Germany. During the project, DAK expects to issue more than six million Smart Cards. The introduction of the electronic health insurance card makes it possible to optimize processes and reduce costs. At the same time, insured persons benefit from better information networking and are served faster, more purposefully and cost-effectively.
DAK will operate its own Certificate Authority for the electronic health insurance card which includes CAMS. In addition, the DAK Certificate Authority will provide the necessary certificates for the members’ health insurance cards and guarantee secure communication between patients, doctors, hospitals and health insurance companies.
CAMS will also enable DAK to consolidate data and to manage members’ health insurance cards. The management of the members’ health insurance cards is the central component for secure communication within the entire Germany-wide IT network infrastructure.
Authentidate provides several important scalability components for CAMS as well as the necessary security requirements for DAK. Apart from the establishment of the Certificate Authority for card-to-card authentication, this also includes the implementation of a complete public key infrastructure for X.509 certificates, which also comprises the use of Authentidate’s own Online Certificate Status Protocol responder and validation server.
With the aid of the Authentidate components, DAK can check whether the certificate of an insurance card is valid and whether the card was used lawfully during the visit to the doctor.
Authentidate also provides the security concepts for the entire Card and Application Management System and the Certificate Authority on the basis of the ISO Standard 27001.
According to Frank Krause, Managing Director of ISKV, “We are delighted that we, together with our long-standing partner Authentidate, can work on such an important and trendsetting project for DAK. The joint solution from ISKV and Authentidate provides optimal conditions for setting up the necessary infrastructure to introduce an electronic health insurance card quickly and in accordance with requirements.”
About DAK
DAK is an institution under public law with self-administration. It is the second largest private health insurance company in Germany with about 4.7 million members, 6.2 million insured persons, approximately 12,000 employees and 900 offices. With a tradition and expertise in national insurance that goes back 230 years, DAK helps in cases of illness. With a choice of nine offers, DAK wants to reward healthy behavior. In addition, the company is considered to be particularly innovative within the statutory Health Insurance Fund. With supplementary insurance and individual tariffs as well as a large number of contracts of integrated care, it is implementing the health care reform in a consistent manner.
DAK computer center, as an operator of CAMS, was set up in 1962. It provides computer center services for DAK, HEK, HMK and VdAK. It provides approximately 15,000 end-users with IT services and handles business processes for around 5.2 million members and consists of two simultaneously productive computer centers that function as an online network with mutual failure redundancy.
About ISKV ISKV
ARGE Information Systems in the Statutory Health Insurance GmbH was set up in 1994 as a GmbH with its head office in Essen and currently employs about 300. The annual turnover in 2004 was 34.7 million euros. The company is an affiliation of several types of health insurance funds and is based on the regulations of the section 219 Social Security Statute Book V. The aim of the company is the development, transfer and support of information systems within the Statutory Health Insurance Fund as well as its further development. The information systems are developed in close coordination with the customers via study groups and test groups– staffed by employees from the types of health insurance funds involved.
About Authentidate
International AG Authentidate International AG in Dusseldorf, Germany, develops and provides independent business-process solutions enabling customers to simply and quickly integrate digital signatures and time stamps into existing corporate processes. The unique set of solutions can be used for almost any business process (i.e. billing, workflow, archiving, scanning and e-mail communication) to significantly reduce costs and optimize processing immediately.
Many high-profile companies in various industries and governmental organizations have used Authentidate’s digital signature solutions for years in Germany, Europe and other countries to substitute paper processing with legally binding, electronic business processes in accordance with international and local legal environments.
About Authentidate Holding Corp.
Authentidate Holding Corp. is a worldwide provider of secure enterprise workflow management applications that incorporate its proprietary and patent pending content authentication technology in the form of the United States Postal Service Electronic Postmark and electronic signing solutions. Authentidate also provides secure document management solutions, and enterprise network security products and services. For more information, visit the company’s website at www.authentidate.com.
