Health Apps on Prescription (DiGA): How to Get One — and Which Are Worth It

There are health apps that your German health insurer pays for — assessed by the Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte (BfArM, Germany's federal institute for drugs and medical devices) and prescribed like a medicine. They are called digitale Gesundheitsanwendungen, DiGA for short — digital health applications. The part that is little known: you do not necessarily need a prescription from a practice — you can also apply for one directly with your health insurer. This guide shows both routes, the steps up to the activation code, and what a DiGA can realistically do. As of 2026.

1. What a DiGA is — and what it is not

A digital health application is a medical device in app or web form that serves to detect, monitor, treat or relieve an illness. The decisive point: it has to go through an assessment procedure at the BfArM (Germany's federal institute for drugs and medical devices) and is only then added to an official directory. Only what is listed there can be paid for by the statutory health insurance.^¹

The assessment covers not only medical aspects but also data protection, data security and usability. On top of that, the manufacturer has to demonstrate a positive healthcare effect (positiver Versorgungseffekt) — a medical benefit or a structural improvement, better adherence to treatment for instance.

This distinction also sets the most important expectation: a DiGA is not a replacement for medical or psychotherapeutic treatment, it is one building block alongside it. It replaces neither medicines nor physiotherapy nor psychotherapy — it fills the time between appointments, when you would otherwise be on your own.

2. The DiGA directory: the only reliable list

The BfArM maintains a public DiGA directory. It is the only place that states bindingly which applications are reimbursable. Every entry includes, among other things, the field of application, the associated diagnosis codes, the intended period of use, the price, the data protection details and the status of the listing.^¹

• Search by complaint: you can filter by field of application without knowing the technical terms.
• Check the status: provisionally or permanently listed — the difference matters, see section 6.
• Note down the diagnosis codes: they help in the conversation with your practice or with the application to your insurer.
• Check the platform: some applications only run on certain operating systems or need additional devices.
• Mind the period of use: an activation code is usually valid for 90 days, after which a follow-up prescription is needed.

A directory entry means: assessed, safe to use, paid for. Whether the application helps you is decided by your particular complaint — and by whether its way of working suits you.

3. Two routes to a DiGA — the second is barely known

There is not just one route to an app on prescription, there are two. The second is rarely mentioned, even though in many cases it is the faster one.

Route 1: a prescription from the practice

Doctors and psychotherapists can prescribe a DiGA just like a medicine. You get a prescription, submit it to your health insurer and receive the activation code. The advantage: the choice is made in a professional conversation, and the application is embedded in your treatment plan.

The drawback in practice: not everyone treating you knows the directory well. It is perfectly all right to walk into the appointment with a concrete suggestion. How to prepare a request like that is set out in the guide Preparing for a doctor's appointment.

Route 2: applying directly to your health insurer

You can apply for a DiGA directly with your Krankenkasse (statutory health insurer), without a prescription, if you can show the matching diagnosis. Suitable evidence includes a doctor's letter, a test result, a diagnosis certificate or a sick note (Arbeitsunfähigkeitsbescheinigung) carrying the relevant diagnosis code.^²

1. Look in the DiGA directory to see which application fits your diagnosis, and note down the diagnosis code.
2. Gather your evidence — an existing document is usually enough, a new appointment is often not necessary.
3. Apply to your insurer, through the app, the customer portal, a form or informally in writing.
4. Wait for the activation code — the insurer checks the application and as a rule sends the code by post or digitally.

4. From code to app: the process step by step

Whichever route you take, at the end there is always an activation code. Here is how it goes on:

1. Receive the code. Your insurer sends a prescription code, usually by letter or in the insurer's app.
2. Download the app. From the official app store or through the manufacturer's web interface — the directory entry names the right route.
3. Create an account. Register with the manufacturer; pay attention to which details are compulsory.
4. Enter the code. That unlocks the full range of functions for the period provided for.
5. Work through the introduction. Almost all DiGA start with a baseline assessment; take it seriously, it steers the rest of the programme.
6. Plan fixed times. Two to four short sessions a week are more realistic than a resolution to do it "daily".
7. Decide after 90 days. Sort out in good time before it expires whether a follow-up prescription makes sense.

5. Which complaints there are DiGA for

The range is growing and changing all the time. These fields of application have been well covered for years — you check what is actually available in the directory.

The most obvious use is in insomnia. Cognitive behavioural therapy is the first-choice approach there, and at the same time therapy places are scarce — a digital version closes a genuine gap in care. Why that is often the better choice compared with tablets is set out in the guide Sleeping pills: what really helps.

6. Provisionally or permanently listed? The honest difference

The directory states for every application whether it is listed provisionally or permanently. This difference is often skimmed over, but it says a great deal about the evidence.^¹

• Permanently listed: the manufacturer has demonstrated the positive healthcare effect in a study and has passed the assessment in full. These applications stay in the directory for good, as long as the requirements continue to be met.
• Provisionally listed: the application is listed on trial. The proof of benefit is still being produced in a trial phase of, as a rule, up to a year, which can be extended. If the proof does not succeed, the application is removed again.

That does not mean provisionally listed applications are poor — they have been assessed and they are safe. It does mean that the proof of effectiveness is still outstanding. If you know that, you go in with more realistic expectations and are less disappointed when an app has not changed your life after a few weeks.

The Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen (IQWiG, Germany's institute for quality and efficiency in health care) has also pointed out repeatedly that study quality in the DiGA field is inconsistent and that effects are sometimes small.^³ That is an argument for sober expectations — not an argument against giving it a try. An app that carries hardly any risk and is paid for by your insurer clears a far lower bar than a medicine with a side-effect profile.

7. What makes a good DiGA

If you can choose between several applications for the same complaint, these criteria help:

• A clear programme rather than a collection of material — good applications lead you through a structure instead of parking you in front of a library.
• A realistic time commitment — 10 to 20 minutes per session fits into everyday life, 60 minutes rarely does.
• Adapts to how you are doing — the application responds to what you enter instead of rigidly running through the same programme.
• Understandable language and accessibility — font size, read-aloud function, clear navigation.
• Exportable results — a report you can take to your next appointment makes the app part of your treatment.
• No pressure to buy extras — what has been prescribed has to be fully usable without paying anything on top.

The realistic expectation: sticking with it is the active ingredient

With DiGA the same relationship applies as with medicines: the best prescription does not work if it stays in the drawer. With tablets this is called treatment adherence — and we know that a considerable share of people take long-term medicines irregularly. With apps it is no different, if anything worse: drop-out rates are highest in the first two weeks.

From this follows the most important practical advice in this article: plan the use like a dose. A fixed time, a fixed trigger, a reminder. If you couple the app session to an existing habit — after brushing your teeth, after the evening tablet — you are considerably more likely to stay with it. The same mechanisms are described in the guide Medication reminders by app.

8. Data protection check: what to look out for

DiGA are subject to stricter requirements than ordinary health apps: data processing is tied to a defined purpose, passing data on for advertising is ruled out, and the manufacturer must have gone through an information security assessment.^¹

Even so, it is worth taking your own look before you register:

• Which data is compulsory? Details needed for the application to work are normal — access to your contacts or location usually is not.
• Where is the data held? The directory entry names the server location and the legal basis for processing.
• Is there a way to delete it? Before registering, check how you can get rid of your account and your data again at the end.
• Is it analysed? Consent to your data being used for product improvement is voluntary — you are allowed to refuse it.
• Are you sharing results? The report to your practice is useful, but it is your decision.

9. Costs: who pays what

For people with statutory health insurance, a DiGA that has been prescribed or approved by the insurer is free of charge — there is no co-payment, unlike with many medicines. The manufacturer settles up directly with the insurer.^²

With private insurance and Beihilfe the rule is: ask before you activate the code. Getting costs covered after the event is far harder to push through than a commitment obtained beforehand. If questions of reimbursement generally give you trouble, you will find the basics in the guide Co-payments and exemptions.

10. Where a DiGA is not the right answer

Honesty means naming the other direction too. In these situations an app is the wrong tool:

• In an acute crisis. Suicidal thoughts, severe depressive episodes or panic with physical emergency signs belong in face-to-face treatment, not in a self-learning programme.
• When the cause is unclear. A DiGA treats a diagnosis. If you do not have one yet, you need the work-up first.
• As a substitute for an effective treatment. Where physiotherapy, medication or psychotherapy are indicated, the app is the addition, not the alternative.
• When the technology gets in the way. If you are uneasy with smartphones, the app becomes an additional burden — then an offline exercise programme is often more effective.

And one point that is easily lost: a new treatment — digital or not — does not change the fact that your existing medication carries on. Do not stop anything because an app shows progress. Why that is risky and how to do it properly is explained in Stopping medications; for antidepressants in particular, see Stopping SSRIs.

11. DiGA in everyday life with a chronic illness

For people with a long-term illness, DiGA are often the most useful — and at the same time the hardest to keep up, because there is already so much to organise.

What helps in practice: hang the app session on an existing fixed point instead of inventing a new one. If you take tablets in the morning anyway and note down readings, you can add the exercise straight afterwards. The same goes if you measure your blood pressure in the evening. More strategies are collected in the guide Chronic illness in daily life.

A second point concerns people with a lot of preparations: the more building blocks a treatment has, the more important a single overview becomes in which everything comes together. Two apps for exercises, one for readings, a slip of paper for tablets — nobody keeps that up. Background on this in Polypharmacy and Creating a medication plan.

12. How brite helps you alongside your DiGA

brite is not a DiGA but a medication manager — and therefore the level at which the building blocks of your treatment come together. The two work into each other: the DiGA does the exercises, brite makes sure neither the dose nor the exercise gets lost.

Sticking with your treatment — with brite

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