Examination via smartphone
By Björn König | Mar 02, 2022 at 8:58 p.m
Diagnosis, medical certificate and prescription without leaving the house. That's what the "kry" app promises. However, a virtual consultation via smartphone does have disadvantages, as our test showed. Medicines, in particular, quickly become expensive and a trip to the doctor's office can probably not be avoided in the case of more complicated complaints.
If you don't have any acute symptoms, you sometimes have to wait months for a doctor's appointment. Arriving at the practice, the direct route first leads back to the waiting room. That doesn't have to be the case, at least if you can believe the makers of the "kry" app. This is a digital visit to the doctor on a smartphone, which is intended to help at least with simple medical cases. But how well does it really work and can kry replace an examination at all? We put the whole thing through its paces and draw mixed conclusions.
User Account and Registration
Access to the "digital medical practice" is only possible via a user account, the health insurance data is particularly important. Important to know: kry works for patients who are members of a statutory health insurance company. No additional payment is required for the doctor's appointment itself. Minors cannot use the offer themselves, registration is only possible from the age of 18. In addition, it makes no difference whether a patient has health insurance himself, is in family insurance or is a member of student health insurance. You can then log into the app itself using all available security options, such as fingerprints.
Also read: Paid health apps are now available with a doctor's prescription
Limited Features
The kry app has some limitations compared to the regular doctor's visit. According to the provider, it is currently not possible to cover the costs of medication on health insurance prescriptions, with kry only private prescriptions are issued. As a result, patients have to pay the full price, which can be very expensive for certain medications. Retrospective sick leave is not possible, which is why it is not possible to receive sick pay retrospectively. The sick notes mentioned are only for submission to the employer, but not to the health insurance company and are only available in PDF format. If you want to submit the documents to your employer by post, you have to print them out yourself.
Appointment
Our test
Recommended only to a limited extent
In our opinion, the kry app can under no circumstances replace a regular visit to the doctor. This is due to the fact that, at least according to the provider, it is currently not possible to cover the costs of medication. However, medication is often indispensable even for a simple cold. In the case of potentially more serious illnesses, it would even be grossly negligent and dangerous not to visit a doctor on site. Of course, kry also knows this and therefore already indicates in the app for which diseases the service can be used at all.
