Gieseke and Devrient wins smartcard contract

Electronic Healthcare Card

Munich-based identity technology specialist Giesecke & Devrient has won a contract from the German health insurer Kaufmännische Krankenkasse and 28 corporate health insurance funds to manufacture and supply around ten million electronic healthcare cards.

The contract includes electronic personalisation of the smart cards so they include data relating to the insured persons and their insurer. As part of the contract G&D will also be responsible for dispatching the new insurance cards to the insured. Roll-out is expected to start in January 2009.

The electronic health insurance card will initially store data including the policyholder’s name, address, date of birth and health insurance fund, along with details of insurance coverage and details of their status in relation to supplementary charges.

Policyholders will also have the option of ordering a “PIN Home Package” from the KKH, containing a special card reader and software to connect to a home PC. Once connected at home they can check their current basic data or emergency information voluntarily stored on the card.

“We were convinced by the sophisticated technical concept, coupled with Giesecke & Devrient’s experience of major projects in the healthcare sector,” said KKH chairman Ingo Kailuweit.

The sensitivity of medical data meant that data protection was a key consideration of the project. G&D is so far the only manufacturer to have been awarded an IT security certificate by the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) for cards issued in test regions.

Hans Wolfgang Kunz, head of the Government Solutions business unit at G&D, said: “Giesecke & Devrient has worked tremendously hard to develop and implement a powerful technical system for the electronic health insurance card. Our customers benefit from state-of-the-art technology and absolute precision in our smart-card production. We deliver the perfect complete package solution.”

A photo of the cardholder provides additional protection against misuse of the card. The new smart card will in the first instance be used for electronic prescriptions and is already designed to store a qualified electronic signature that legally and technically replaces the need for users to sign by hand. This feature would make it possible for holders of an electronic healthcare card to identify themselves to authorities in areas such as e-government applications.

Giesecke & Devrient suppliers roughly a quarter of the health smart cards currently in use in Germany. In addition the company is supplies the infrastructure that will control the lifecycle of 70% of all health insurance cards in Germany.

G&D specialises in smart cards, providing smart card-based solutions for telecommunications, electronic payment, healthcare, ID, transportation, and IT security (PKI). In 2007 the Munich-based company had a turnover of almost €1.5 billion.