Faced with the concern caused by Gabriel Attal's announcement this weekend of the end of Social Security coverage of sick leave delivered by teleconsultation by a doctor different from the attending doctor from June 1, 2023 , the Minister of Health François Braun briefly explained the reasons, and the contours, this Tuesday morning.
In 2021, “110,000 work stoppages were granted by teleconsultation.
(…) In 80% of cases, eight out of ten cases, it is patients who have an attending physician who have had another physician stop.
Obviously that questions, "he said on France Info, sweeping away the argument of some, who explain the explosion of sick leaves by teleconsultation by the fact that six to seven million French people do not have a doctor, and that it is less thorny for them to obtain an appointment on video than in a doctor's office.
“Of these 110,000 people, there are no more in the so-called medical desert areas,” he also added.
🗣 Reimbursement of sick leave in teleconsultation ➡️ " We are talking about 110,000 work stoppages made by teleconsultation.
This is twice as much as the previous year.
In 80% of cases, these are patients who have an attending physician.
It questions”, according to François Braun.
pic.twitter.com/B9jYv66ngr
— franceinfo (@franceinfo) September 27, 2022
The Social Security finance bill for 2023 will therefore lay down the principle of reimbursement of salary for the days of sick leave "if the sick leave is made by the attending physician or by a doctor who has seen you in the previous 12 months ".
There will be “special cases, on a case-by-case basis” which will continue to be taken care of, he also specified, giving the example of “an elderly person in an under-resourced area” in medical offices “ whose attending physician has stopped working”.
Finally, he was careful to specify, it is always possible to be arrested by a doctor, and reimbursed, by going to see him.
Read alsoWork stoppages in teleconsultation: five minutes to understand a shock proposal
And to conclude that “teleconsultation is a very useful tool but like any tool that is developing, we must be very vigilant with regard to abuse”.
Asked a little later about the 28 million medical appointments not honored by patients, as our newspaper revealed in July and recalled last week, François Braun affirmed that discussions were going to start in October to find solutions to this massive problem.
“It is unacceptable not to warn,” he said, assuring that the discourtesy was the same at the hospital.
"We have a resource there to regain medical time", while France lacks doctors.
As for making patients pay for these consultations not honored, the minister affirmed that the subject would be discussed "without taboo".
