Liberal doctors’ unions and Health Insurance are starting negotiations on Thursday. The goal ? Define the price of telemedicine consultations.
Consult your doctor or a specialist using a webcam, and see your consultation reimbursed: this should soon be generalized in France. The government wishes to develop telemedicine, which should make it possible to fight against medical deserts. Liberal doctors’ unions and the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM) are meeting this Thursday to negotiate. It is a question of defining the field of application of this new kind of medicine and of determining the tariffs.
Two types of online consultation will be discussed from today: teleconsultations, which are medical consultations carried out remotely, and tele-expertise, in this case it is a specialist who gives his opinion after being requested. by a general practitioner. The discussions do not concern telemonitoring, which consists of placing monitoring devices in patients.
Long-term ailments, first reimbursed
For the CNAM, the objective is to begin by reimbursing patients with long-term illness. Some are not very mobile or live in medical deserts, teleconsultation could improve the quality of their care. Because for the CNAM, the objective is to avoid an explosion of consultations, and therefore costs.
The liberal doctors’ unions are asking for the cost of financing equipment to be taken into account. The CNAM considers that this type of consultation should be remunerated like a classic consultation. For liberal doctors’ unions, the price must vary depending on whether it is a simple medical opinion or a medical check-up.
Negotiations are expected to last until the end of March.
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