DAK-Gesundheit, one of Germany’s largest health insurance companies, serves over six million insured individuals across the country. Managing a massive volume of correspondence, with nearly 90,000 pieces of mail received daily, presented significant challenges in document handling, processing, and long-term storage. To address these issues, DAK-Gesundheit established DigiCenters in Berlin, Essen, and Hamburg, dedicated facilities where 80% of incoming documents—including certificates, treatment plans, payment slips, and various applications—are digitized daily. This initiative was aimed at streamlining operations, improving document accessibility, and ensuring compliance with stringent legal archiving requirements.
In 2012, DAK-Gesundheit made a strategic decision to transition to color scanning, enhancing the readability of scanned documents and improving on-screen display quality. Alongside this transition, the company adopted the PDF/A format, a standardized version of PDF designed for long-term archiving. This shift offered several advantages, including better data extraction capabilities, enhanced document integrity, and compliance with German legal requirements for document retention. However, the move to color scanning raised concerns about significantly increased file sizes, which could strain storage capacities and network bandwidth.
To mitigate these issues, DAK-Gesundheit implemented Foxit’s advanced PDF compression technology. This solution allowed the company to maintain high-quality color scans while keeping file sizes manageable. The compression technology ensured that the transition to color scanning did not result in increased infrastructure costs or slower document retrieval times. This advancement not only preserved the visual integrity of documents but also optimized storage and bandwidth usage, leading to significant operational savings.
The digitization process at DAK-Gesundheit follows a streamlined workflow. After documents are scanned and compressed, they are assigned a qualified electronic signature to meet legal validation standards. Metadata is extracted from each document and stored in XML files, enabling efficient indexing and searchability within the organization’s document management system. The final PDF/A files, complete with embedded metadata, are then integrated into DAK-Gesundheit’s centralized system, allowing for secure access and quick retrieval by staff across multiple locations.
To adhere to data protection regulations, physical copies of digitized documents are stored for six weeks before being securely destroyed. This process ensures compliance with strict privacy laws while minimizing the need for physical storage space. The combination of advanced digitization techniques, robust compression, and secure data management has significantly improved DAK-Gesundheit’s operational efficiency and reduced overall costs.
Foxit’s solutions have played a critical role in DAK-Gesundheit’s successful transition to a fully digital document management system. By streamlining workflows, reducing file sizes, and ensuring legal compliance, Foxit has helped the organization manage its massive volume of daily correspondence more effectively. To learn more about how DAK-Gesundheit optimized its document workflows with Foxit’s PDF solutions, download the full case study.