Reimbursement is a key challenge for many new digital health solutions, whose importance and value have been highlighted and expanded by the current COVID-19 pandemic. Germany’s new Digital Healthcare Act (Digitale–Versorgung–Gesetz or DVG) entitles all individuals covered by statutory health insurance to reimbursement for certain digital health applications (i.e., insurers will pay for their use). Since Germany, like the United States (US), is a multi-payer health care system, the new Act provides a particularly interesting case study for US policymakers. We first provide an overview of the new German DVG and outline the landscape for reimbursement of digital health solutions in the US, including recent changes to policies governing telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic. We then discuss challenges and unanswered questions raised by the DVG, ranging from the limited scope of the Act to privacy issues. Lastly, we highlight early lessons and opportunities for other countries.

报销是许多新的数字医疗解决方案面临的一个关键挑战，当前的 COVID-19 大流行凸显并扩大了其重要性和价值。德国新的数字医疗法案（Digital–Versorgung–Gesetz 或 DVG）赋予法定健康保险覆盖的所有个人对某些数字医疗应用程序的报销（即保险公司将为其使用付费）。由于德国和美国一样，都是一个多支付者医疗保健系统，因此新法案为美国政策制定者提供了一个特别有趣的案例研究。我们首先概述了新的德国 DVG，并概述了美国数字医疗解决方案的报销前景，包括最近在 COVID-19 大流行期间管理远程医疗的政策的变化。然后，我们讨论 DVG 提出的挑战和未解答的问题，从该法案的有限范围到隐私问题。最后，我们强调其他国家的早期教训和机遇。