Questions
Here you will find answers to frequently asked questions. For any other queries, please get in touch.
General
The new Well health platform is a mobile app that acts as a gateway to digital healthcare services in Switzerland. Well gives you access to leading digital healthcare services via a single platform, so no need for multiple individual apps. Customers get straightforward, round-the-clock access to quality-controlled healthcare services tailored to them.
The first services to be offered on the platform will be a symptom checker; electronic prescriptions allowing you to directly order medication for collection or delivery via a pharmacy of your choice; a safe place for storing and retrieving health data; and a simple digital entry point for initial and follow-up contact with healthcare professionals. Users will be able to get medical support, book telemedical consultations, order medication, and more. The platform serves as the patient’s personal, digital guide within the Swiss healthcare system, supporting them on their healthcare journey.
It is the first time that various partners in Switzerland have come together to create personalised, digital guide through the healthcare system. The Well platform is impartial and open to all interested parties. The Well app offers anyone in Switzerland an end-to-end user journey through the healthcare system. Users feel they are in safe hands with the app, from their first health query through to diagnosis, doctor’s appointment, and prescriptions.
Well users receive rapid, high-quality treatment with full transparency, active support with their health questions, a wide range of digital and in-person health services, and safe management of their health data. Well allows you to connect to the Swiss healthcare system at the click of a button!
Well’s investors are the Swiss health insurers CSS and Visana, the telemedicine provider Medi24, and the online pharmacy and technology provider Zur Rose AG. Galenica and Swiss Medical Network have taken a stake in Well since June 2022.
Dossier
The dossier shows all documents in chronological order. You can find a specific document with the search and filter function. You can upload your documents to the dossier via the plus symbol. Additional dossier functionalities or file functionalities can be found via the 3-point menus, e.g., sharing a document with a doctor.
In the dossier, you can upload and manage your own documents. In addition, your appointments and shared documents with doctors are also stored in the dossier.
Only pdf documents and pictures can be opened directly in the Well app. For all other type of documents you will have to download the file and open it on your device. Please note that when you download a document to your device Well is no longer responsible for the security of the document saved to the files on your device as it is outside of Well.
Go to the dossier. Click on the 3-dot icon of the document you want to send and then click on “Send to doctor”. Now you can search for the doctor you want to send the document to. Once you have selected the doctor, you can add a comment and then send it.
Flu vaccination
– So that the body has protective antibodies and is one nose ahead of the flu viruses. Vaccination offers the best protection against flu.
– Because you protect yourself and others and reduce the risk of serious complications.
– Healthy persons aged 16 and over who want to protect not only themselves but also their environment.
– Persons with an increased risk of complications or who can transmit the virus to persons at increased risk.
The cost of the vaccination is CHF 45.
To find out if the costs will be covered, please contact your supplementary health insurance.
The ideal time for vaccination is from mid-October until the beginning of the flu season.
The vaccination is effective approximately two weeks after the vaccination.
The flu or influenza is a general illness that is often severe and is transmitted by influenza viruses. It occurs almost exclusively in the winter months and is accompanied by fever, cough, cold, headache and pain in the limbs. General hygiene measures (e.g. washing hands) have a preventive effect. Bed rest should be observed in case of flu symptoms.
– Fever over 40 degrees, persisting for more than 24 hours
– Shortness of breath or pain when breathing
– Purulent sputum
– Middle ear and sinus infections
– Clouding of consciousness and stiff neck
The vaccination dates are available, for example, in pharmacies with special authorisation in almost all cantons (not in AR and TI).
Doctor Search
To search, simply enter the name or address of the specific clinic or practice you are looking for, the city in which you are searching for a doctor, and/or the specialisation you require. When you click “”search”” a list of doctors meeting your specified criteria will appear.
Try to specify your search further e.g. fill in both speciality, area and/or the specific doctor practice name. Well can only return 20 doctors based on your search at a time, so it might be that there are in fact more doctors in the area than what the list shows. If no doctors show up based on your criteria, try to change your search to less search parameters.
Connection to the doctor
The connection identifies you as a patient of this doctor. This allows the doctor to send you documents in a secure way.
The doctors with whom you can connect have a corresponding icon. You can connect to the doctor by clicking on “Create connection”. This is possible via the doctor search.
A prerequisite for a connection to a doctor is that you have already had an appointment with him or her. It is possible to connect with several doctors. All doctors who already belong to the Well network are marked with a corresponding symbol.
In this case, please contact the doctor’s clinic. The most common reason is different information between Well and the clinic. Please check if the first name, last name, gender and date of birth in Well and the doctor’s clinic are the same – you can always change the information in the Well app yourself. You can then resend the connection request from the Well app. Keep in mind that you can only connect to doctors with whom you have already had an appointment.
Doctor Chat
Doctor Chat is a service of Medi24, which helps to get answers from doctors for medical concerns quickly and easily via chat.
The doctor gives recommendations for action – if they are able to do so via chat.
A chat takes about 5 minutes on average.
It depends on your health insurance: some users can use it for free, for others it requires payment.
In this case, the payment processing is handled by Payrexx.
Once paid, you have the possibility to restart Doctor Chat during 20 minutes without further payment.
Doctor Chat is not suitable for acute, severe health problems or emergencies, but is recommended for a better assessment of a mild or moderate health concern. The doctor cannot give you a diagnosis, the answers or recommendations are more to be understood as practical advice.
Typical examples are:
- You wake up in the middle of the night and have pain
- You’re feeling sick and not sure how serious it is
Please note that the recommendation or chat history is not stored in the Well app; it is only viewable while you are in the chat.
If you are a paid user of Doctor Chat, you will receive a payment confirmation email from our payment provider. As a logged in user you will also receive a payment confirmation (PDF) in your dossier.
Most issues are resolved after one question and answer. You have the option to ask more questions at no additional cost.
Disconnect with the doctor
You can disconnect with a doctor at any time – for example, if you change your doctor. You can find the action for this on the doctor details page. You can reconnect later by following the steps to connect to the doctor again.
The doctor can no longer send you any documents (e.g., medication plan, laboratory evaluation). However, all documents you have already received remain stored in your dossier.
Yes, the doctor can also disconnect with you.
Booking a doctor's appointment
Doctors who offer online appointment booking are marked accordingly in the doctor search with a calendar icon.
Click on a doctor and then on “Book appointment”. Follow the steps in the app. The booking status is displayed in the app and saved in the dossier.
For appointment bookings processed through our partner Medicosearch, an account is opened. In your Medicosearch account, you can manage and cancel the booking. The registration is free, and the corresponding data is subject to legal data protection regulations.
Your appointment can be managed in the dossier. You will see the button “Cancel appointment” in the appointment view.
Cancellations are usually possible up to 48 hours (for Medicosearch appointments) or 24 hours (for Arzthaus appointments) before the appointment in the Well app. The cancellation is based on the cancellation conditions of the doctor or practice. You can find these in the booking widget of the doctor or on the practice website.
You can cancel it and make a new appointment. Please consider the cancellation conditions of the medical practice. In urgent cases, we recommend contacting the practice by phone.
There are currently no video consultations available in the Well app. If a video consultation has been booked with a doctor, the Medicosearch app must be downloaded in order to use it.
With some doctors, a booked appointment may consist of 2 separate appointments. In this case, 2 appointments will be displayed in the dossier to show you the corresponding information about the appointments. Please note that cancellation of one appointment may result in the cancellation of the other appointment.
Receive documents from the doctor
All doctors to whom you have established a connection can send you documents. You can find the connected doctors in the doctor search below in the “Connections” section.
You will find all the documents you have received from a doctor in your dossier.
e-prescription
You should tell the doctor or telemedicine consultant that you wish to receive the prescription in the Well app. The doctor or telemedicine consultant will then send a code to your email address, which you will have to enter into Well. Once you have entered the code, the connection is established with the respective doctor and the doctor is able to send you prescriptions, which are displayed in Well.
Currently you can only receive prescriptions from the Well telemedicine provider. In the future you will be able to get a prescription from any doctor connected to Well.
Check that you have a stable connection to the internet and try redeeming the prescription again. If the error occurs again, please contact the Well support through this Freshdesk tool by creating a new ticket.
This depends on your insurance. In some cases your medication is paid by your insurance company and in other cases depending also on your deductible and co-payment you will have to cover the cost of the medication yourself. You will either receive the invoice directly from Zur Rose or through your insurance company. If you receive it directly from Zur Rose you can submit the invoice to your insurance company afterwards.
The price of the respective medicine can be found in the Zur Rose online shop. Well is not responsible for your purchase and payment.
Under normal circumstances your medication should be at the respective pharmacy latest 48 hours after you have ordered it. Please check directly with the pharmacy to confirm that it has the medication.
Delivery is normally made by post within 2 working days.
You will receive detailed shipping information by mail sent by Zur Rose Online Pharmacy.
It is foreseen that you will be able to order from different pharmacies in the future. However, currently only Zur Rose online pharmacy is possible.
Double check that you entered the correct city or zip code as well as name of the pharmacy you are searching for and try to click search again.
Please note that only 20 pharmacies can be shown at a time, so you might want to specify your search as much as possible.
Telemedecine appointment
A telemedicine appointment is a consultation held with a medical consultant over the phone. A tele-consultation is required by some insurance models before you are allowed to visit the doctor in person. Remember that you should always adhere to the contractual provisions applicable to your insurance model.
No. The medical consultant is not required to have a look at the photos/ documents and or symptomchecks you attached before your telemedicine appointment. However, the uploads can help guide the tele-consultation.
Medi24 is a third party provider. In order to use medi24 via Well, you need to set up an account so that Well can process and share your data (date of birth, name, telephone number) with medi24 upon your prior explicit consent.
Preventive care
This feature helps you decide what preventive check ups and screenings make sense for you based on your age, gender and individual risk factors.
You can take the preventive check whenever it suits you.
The preventive care take into account factors that can change in the course of your life (e.g. habits, age, diseases, etc.). That’s why Well recommends using the service once a year to regularly check the individual recommendations.
Home remedies
This feature contains a wide variety of household remedies that may help prevent and treat medical conditions.
Medication
Currently, you cannot directly purchase drugs in “Medication”.
You can search for any drugs. The section will then show you the details of the respective drug (e.g. when to take it, how often and how much).
Medical conditions
This feature presents users with a clinical picture of a wide range of diseases. In addition to general information, the feature also provides information on symptoms, causes, treatments, what you can do yourself and when you should see a doctor.
Symptom Checker
The Symptom Checker can help you to understand if your condition or your symptoms require that you see a doctor, contact telemedicine, or administer self-treatment.
The Symptom Checker uses a medical-questionnaire system that is based, among other things, on evaluation of scientific studies by the Institute for Family Medicine at the University of Bern.
No. You must always adhere to the contractual provisions applicable to your insurance model regardless of the recommendation.
Yes. At the start of the symptom check you can indicate if you are performing the symptom check for yourself or for someone else.
Products, including instruments, apparatus, in-vitro diagnostics, software, and other articles or material which are intended or claimed to be used specifically for medical purposes and which do not achieve their principal intended action in or on the human body by pharmacological means.
In4medicine AG, based in Bern (CHE-114.317.142; info@in4medicine.ch; Tel.: 031 370 13 30; www.in4medicine.ch) is responsible for ensuring that the Symptom Checker complies with the relevant legal requirements and that the current status corresponds to technology and medicine.
Yes, you can delete the symptom check from the app in the “Dossier” area. You will find “Delete” in the 3-dot symbol of the corresponding symptom check.
When you have done a Symptom Check a new case will automatically be generated for you.
You will be able to find your Symptom Check assessment in the respective case or in the “Dossier” section.
Data Security & Account
All your data stored in Well is encrypted and highly secure, which means that Well will not access your data for any unintended use.
It may be required that some of your data is shared with third parties in order to use specific services. In such cases Well will seek your explicit consent, meaning you can always decide what happens to your data. The end user remains in exclusive possession of their health data and this data cannot be viewed by any other party without their consent. No data is shared with insurance companies.
Details of data storage and data security can be found in the Well terms and conditions.
No. When you have a mandatory or alternative health insurance model you must always adhere to the contractual provisions applicable to your model. You can use the Well app in addition to this.
All data in Well is encrypted, which means that unauthorised third parties cannot access the data. Well does not have access to your password.
Well processes your data only to the extent necessary for providing its services to you. This is explained in further detail in Well’s data privacy notice.
Yes. You will find the “delete profile and data” button in the account section of your profile. When you click on it you will have to confirm twice that you really want to delete your profile and data. Once confirmed, Well will delete all your documents and data and this cannot be undone.
Well wants to make sure that only you have access to your account and data. We therefore ask you to complete a two-factor authentication each time you log in.
Click on the tab “Account” in your profile. Here you have the option to click on “Change email”. You then need to enter your new email, your current password and confirm. An email will be sent to you, which you need to verify in order to complete the change of email.
Click on the tab “Account” in your profile. Here you have the option to click on “Change password”. You will have to enter your current password and your new password and click save.
Other
Well provides its services to users in Switzerland. However, in principle, you can also use the application from abroad. It is at your own discretion to find out about the local conditions in the place of your residence (e.g. applicable law, data security, telephone/subscription costs and roaming charges due to the amount of data used). Redeeming of medicine through Well can however only happen if you have a home address in Switzerland.
You can generally use the Well app free of charge. When making use of certain offers, costs may arise which you have to pay. In these cases, such costs are expressly pointed out to you before they arise. The Well app can only be used with an internet connection. Depending on your provider, telephone/subscription costs arise due to the amount of data used. These costs are to be borne by you.
Well automatically log you out to ensure your privacy such that other people cannot access your account.