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Electronic health card; submission of a photo

Did you provide your photo for the electronic health card (eGK) more than 10 years ago? Then your health insurance company may ask you to submit a new photo.

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Procedure details

The electronic health card (eGK) is your membership card with your statutory health insurance company and confirms that the health insurance company will pay for your treatment. Your photo on your eGK helps to avoid confusion and prevent misuse.

To create your eGK, your health insurance company digitizes your picture and saves it as a digital photo. This means that it can be used again if your electronic health card is lost or stolen.

Due to legal regulations, the health insurance company will delete your submitted photo after 10 years at the latest. Before a new card is sent, your health insurance company will inform you whether a new photo is required.

The following do not need a passport photo on the eGK

  • Children and young people up to the age of 15 and
  • insured persons who are unable to participate in the creation of their passport photo, for example immobile people in need of care.

  • You are a member of a statutory health insurance fund and have an eGK.
  • You are at least 15 years old.
  • The previous photo on the eGK is older than 10 years.

  • Required Documents
    • aktuelles Passbild

You can submit your new passport photo by post and - with many statutory health insurance companies - hand it in personally at the office or upload it online.

  • The health insurance company will digitize the photo and issue a new eGK.
  • You will receive the new eGK with the new photo by post.

As a rule, the health insurance company will issue you with a new eGK free of charge. The statutory health insurance companies can charge EUR 5.00 if you are responsible for the need to reissue the eHC, for example if it is lost or damaged.

  • The health insurance companies may store your photo for the duration of your insurance relationship for replacement and subsequent issues of your eGK, but for no longer than 10 years.
  • After the end of the insurance relationship, your previous health insurance company will delete the photo immediately, but at the latest after 3 months.

Processing normally takes around 4 to 7 working days.

In order to process and decide quickly, your health insurance company must have the necessary information and any required documents in a complete and meaningful form.

The health insurance company decides on applications promptly, whereby the statutory processing period is adhered to in order to protect patients' rights.

Please note that the processing time stated is an average value for all health insurance companies. It may vary in individual cases.

The exact processing time also depends on the complexity of the individual case and may be longer. The same applies if documents or records are sent to you or your health insurance company by post.

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Status: 09.03.2025
Editorially responsible for prodecure description: Bundesministerium für Gesundheit
Source: Federal Portal
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