Austria wins the ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation

16 April 2024

The first ever ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation for Europe has been awarded to the Federation of Social Insurances (Dachverband der Österreichischen Sozialversicherungsträger) in Austria for going totally digital with e-prescriptions.

In line with the growing focus on innovation in social security, the International Social Security Association (ISSA) launched the new ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation as part of its regional Good Practice Award competitions. At the Regional Social Security Forum in Porto, Portugal, the first ever ISSA Special Distinction for Innovation in Europe was awarded to the Federation of Social Insurances from Austria, in a competition of 119 good practices from 41 ISSA member institutions in 26 countries.

This award highlights a good practice that has considerable promise to define new pathways to achieve the goals of social security at an institutional, national or regional level. The DSV's E-prescription: Totally digital, is in the implementation phase and due to be launched in early 2025.

"The e-prescription solution of the Federation of Social Insurances from Austria, which addressed a highly complex process involving thousands of actors - doctors, patients, pharmacies - and requires secured mechanisms, is a good practice that can inspire other social security institutions in Europe and beyond to move towards fully digitalized solutions to the benefit of the insured and to the wider society", said Marcelo Abi-Ramia Caetano, Secretary General of ISSA.

The Austrian e-prescription is expected to improve the efficiency and robustness of around 70 million prescriptions per year that are currently paper-based. The solution, which is based on advanced technologies and comprehensive agreements with the main stakeholders, can drastically improve the quality of services by making prescription and medication data available for insured persons in apps, making medication and billing data electronically available in pharmacies, facilitate that prescription fees are credited on a daily basis and that administrative information can be processed continuously. Moreover, it will strengthen forgery protection by ensuring that a prescription can only be redeemed once.

With the European Union (EU) working towards a European Health Data Space, the solution is also of relevance in a wider context, as it provides the basis for redeeming Austrian e-prescriptions in other EU countries and, conversely, for redeeming e-prescriptions created in other EU countries in Austria.

Relevance of the ISSA Guidelines

For the implementation of such projects, a number of ISSA Guidelines can be of relevance, including the ones on: Information and Communication Technology; Service Quality; and Error, Evasion and Fraud in Social Security Systems.