Teleconsultations of general practitioners, but also of specialists have experienced a boom since the Covid epidemic.
To allow the French to stay at home, the government had decided that Social Security would fully support teleconsultations.
At the end of 2021, in a “context of epidemic recovery”, this provision was extended.
Then, at the beginning of the summer of 2022, François Braun, the author of a “flash mission” on emergencies and unscheduled care, who later became Minister of Health, recommended maintaining this full compensation until at the end of summer 2022.
But the government, like Health Insurance, no longer wants this exception and wishes to end this full reimbursement of teleconsultations which sometimes give rise to abuse.
Gabriel Attal, the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, announced in an interview with the Journal du Dimanche that he wanted to put an end to work stoppages delivered by teleconsultation by a doctor who is not the patient's treating doctor.
"These judgments delivered by video by a doctor who is not the attending physician will no longer be reimbursed by Social Security", he declared, lifting the veil a little on one of the measures of the draft security budget. social which will be made public tomorrow Monday.
Still, many French people sometimes have real difficulty getting a doctor.
Gabriel Attal motivates this reimbursement "in order to prevent some from chaining online consultations until they find the one who will give them sick leave".
And to add: “We have seen an explosion of sick leave given, by teleconsultation, by a professional who is not the attending physician.
This is nearly 100 million euros last year”.
“It has become the Wild West”
In September, journalists from the program “Zone Interdit” showed how easy it is to obtain a fake work stoppage during a teleconsultation.
In perfect health, the journalist was able to obtain a one-week break "to go on vacation", which the doctor then renewed for a second week after 6 days.
During the second teleconsultation, the journalist also obtained a one-week break for his wife, so that she could join him on vacation…
Interviewed in early September 2022 by Le Figaro, Thomas Fatôme, the director general of Health Insurance, said he was aware of these abuses.
“It has become the Wild West, and we need to better regulate practices.
Some patients do not hesitate to make several teleconsultations in the same day to obtain the coveted work stoppage.
We want to avoid these excesses, without curbing demand from patients who have difficulty accessing care,” he said.
He also recalled at the same time that under an agreement signed in July 2021, teleconsultation cannot represent more than 20% of the acts carried out by a doctor.
More broadly, in his interview with the JDD, Gabriel Attal insists on the fight against social fraud.
He promises to "strengthen the powers of cyber-investigators from the Social Security funds" who will be able to "identify a professional who only declares a salaried activity but offers his services as a freelancer on Leboncoin without declaring them..." And to warn: " Fraudsters will no longer just be fined but will also have to pay their application fees because the French are tired of paying for them.
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