From the development and initial trials of digital healthcare innovations all the way to practical implementation: as a developer or healthcare provider, where and to whom should you turn for advice and assistance?
On numerous fronts, healthcare professionals and entrepreneurs are working on digital healthcare innovations. These are the future solutions to the growing shortage of hands at the bedside. According to consulting firm McKinsey, the digital healthcare revolution could even save 22 billion. But on the sometimes long road to practical application, developers run into laws and practical objections. In a packed theater tent, representatives of Zorginstituut Nederland, the NZa and Zorgverzekeraars Nederland discuss obstacles, rules and pay titles.
On one thing Robin Toorneman, ZiN, Dennis Japink, ZN, and Anthony Heil, NZa, agree wholeheartedly: the digital healthcare transformation is necessary, the mantra "digital if you can" they all embrace. But what each person's role then is in that necessary transformation varies.
Digitization and Hybridization
For health insurers, the digitization and hybridization of healthcare are increasingly becoming factors in their annual procurement rounds, but “digital-first” providers are not yet being given real priority. “We’re not there yet,” says Japink.
The NZa faces yet another set of questions when it comes to digital healthcare innovations: Which reimbursement category can be assigned to them, and why does it take so long? “It’s sometimes possible to grant an ‘experimental reimbursement status’ within a few months,” says Heil, “if an innovation is on a certain scale and if health insurers support it.”
Basic Coverage Package
The Health Care Institute has a guide that describes how health care providers, health insurers and developers can assess whether digital care belongs in the basic package. The NZa has its own 'guide to financing digital care', which describes the options for financing digital care. This can sometimes be complicated, for example in the case of so-called "asynchronous digital care," or digital self-care.
This is a striking difference compared to Germany, says Toorneman. “It’s quite remarkable that Germany is actually ahead of us in the digitization of healthcare for once, because doctors there can already write a ‘prescription’ for digital treatments or an app.”
ZN is currently experimenting in this area, Japink adds. “Together with a number of other parties, such as the LHV and patient federations, we’ve taken the initiative to refer patients to digital self-care apps. This year is mainly about learning; by 2026, we want to make three apps available for referral.”
Transformation Agenda
Japink also mentions the Digizo platform from ZN: "Before 2022, health insurers were mainly working on digital transformation from within themselves. But you can't manage such a transformation alone." Starting in 2023, fourteen different parties found each other in Digizo. "Together we have drawn up a transformation agenda of relevant processes that we are going to digitize."
Central point of contact
Among all these different sources, Toorneman ultimately points in particular to the website zorgvoorinnoveren.nl. According to him, that is the one-stop shop and central point of contact for all questions of care innovators. "We are in the midst of digital transformation. The most important thing is that care remains accessible; that urgency remains great."
