From 1 January 2021, everyone with statutory health insurance could ask their insurer for an electronic patient record, the elektronische Patientenakte. By the end of June 2023, about one percent had one. The government then changed the default. A law with the name Gesetz zur Beschleunigung der Digitalisierung des Gesundheitswesens, the Act to Accelerate the Digitalization of Health Care, made the record automatic. Since 15 January 2025, every insured person receives one unless they object.