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Pharmacy prices for the digital vaccination card: 18 euros for one for a QR code

2021-06-11T05:55:43.819Z


First, pharmacists made good money on the reimbursements for FFP2 masks. Now they should also cash in when issuing the digital vaccination certificates. The industry rejects criticism.


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Digital vaccination certificate: A lot of people mean a lot of work - but also a lot of sales

Photo: Christoph Dernbach / dpa

Around 19 million people in Germany are already fully vaccinated - and have received a confirmation on paper: a slip of paper or a stamp in their vaccination pass.

This proof, which has now become a pass for participation in social life, should also be able to be provided via smartphone in the future.

In addition to the vaccination centers and medical practices, pharmacists should also take care of digitization, which in turn enables transmission to the Corona warning app or the CovPass app presented by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn on Thursday.

The Federal Ministry of Health entrusted the issuing of the QR codes required for this purpose to the very professional group that, according to the Federal Audit Office, received "significant overcompensation" from tax revenues when the FFP2 masks were made available in the spring.

Now a generous remuneration is planned for them again.

For the creation of a vaccination certificate you will receive 18 euros in the future.

After record sales in 2020, this reimbursement could help flush another hundreds of millions of euros into pharmacists' coffers in 2021.

The subsequent issue requires special care in order to check the plausibility of the actual presence of a vaccination and to prevent abuse, the ministry's draft ordinance stated as a justification.

The spokesman for the Federal Association of German Pharmacists' Associations announced that the service must cover costs.

And: "We assume that many people will make use of the subsequent issue of digital vaccination certificates free of charge for them." In other words: Many people mean a lot of work.

But also a lot of sales.

Accordingly, not everyone can understand the amount of the remuneration.

"More than I get for early cancer detection"

On Twitter, a user named “Landurologist” writes: “18 euros for issuing the digital vaccination certificate is more than I get for early cancer detection.

And the ladies and gentlemen from and to pharmacists don't even have to put on gloves and reach into a strange Unnerbüx «.

The Green politician Christopher Lauer, who previously sat for the Pirate Party in the Berlin House of Representatives, joked: "Can we offset that with the quick tests that I won't have to do in two weeks?" the pharmacies might have to upgrade a little technically, since the documentation of the vaccination certificate is still done without major material expenditure.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn defended the costs for the subsequent issue: "The remuneration should reflect the effort," said the CDU politician.

He sees the danger that otherwise too few pharmacies will get the software offered and participate in the certification of vaccination records.

The doctor’s practices, in turn, can generate the certificate in the course of the vaccination, but according to Spahn they should only receive a "low single-digit" amount for it.

For the chairman of the German Pharmacists' Association (DAV), Thomas Dittrich, the remuneration does not go far enough - the pharmacies would be disadvantaged by the sales tax regulation in the reimbursement of costs.

It is astonishing that "gross amounts are anchored in the Coronavirus Vaccination Ordinance" for the certificates again.

Thomas Preis from the North Rhine Pharmacists' Association, on the other hand, pointed out, according to the “Pharmazeutischer Zeitung”, that the generation of vaccination records is not that easy.

After all, his colleagues only found out about their new job at very short notice.

In addition, pharmacists will not only have to check vaccination records and identification documents in the future, they will also have to familiarize themselves with the new software beforehand - and register and authenticate themselves on a portal of the pharmacists' association.

Nevertheless, the free service for customers should be available in pharmacies as early as Monday.

Source: spiegel

All business articles on 2021-06-11

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