Health insurance companies will support 3D printing

Quantum leap innovation from the point of view of the health insurer

Digitalisation is changing the demands made on health insurers. In the following an example from the area of future individualized provision of personalized medicine.

Patients will provide a wide range of health data to physicians, who will create individualized therapies using additional biomarkers, in particular orally active drugs, using special algorithms. The physician then issues a prescription with an individual dosage of the drug.

The patient therefore comes to the pharmacy as usual with a prescription for a prescription drug. Pharmacists who specialise in the production of 3D tablets produce the 3-dimensional (D) tablets in the exact dosage and quantity required and are thus responsible for decentralised production, packaging and distribution.

Possibly the production of the individualized 3D printed tablet will be substantially more complex and thus also more expensive than conventionally manufactured tablets. On the other hand, the advantages for the patient are immense and one could imagine that a part of the prescription costs for prescription drugs is borne by the patients themselves. This should also make it easier for the health insurer to reimburse 3D tablets. In any case, the quantum leap innovation of 3D tablet printing will also be a decisive step for health insurers to optimize personalized therapy and medicine and thus ultimately make a decisive contribution to cost-covering evidence-based medicine. Even if the mass-produced traditional tablets, which can be manufactured in large volumes, will still be needed in the future, a new important field for individualized orally effective medicine will emerge.

How do representatives of health insurance companies assess this assessment of the quantum leap potential of the 3D tablet?

Note: the entire article is the author's opinion, not that of any of his previous or current employers, and this publication is not supported by them in any way.

Interested in more blogs about 3D printing?

In the previous episode, a quantum leap innovation was explained from a doctor's point of view.

In the next episode the quantum leap innovation is explained from the point of view of health authorities.

Dr. Volker Moeckel