Good news for our health (and our wallets): this Tuesday, June 30, 2020, the Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) gave the green light to the reimbursement of a surgical protective mask against Covid-19, as part of of the coronavirus epidemic.
Manufactured by the French pharmaceutical laboratory Majorelle, this surgical mask (baptized “Assanis”) should therefore be reimbursed shortly by Social Security … but on medical prescription only.
The Medical Devices Evaluation Commission has thus “recommended that the Assanis surgical mask be covered for patients with Covid-19 and patients at high risk of developing a serious form of infection” to the coronavirus. The following will probably be concerned: people aged 65 and over and patients suffering from chronic diseases (asthma, diabetes, etc.).
Masks reimbursed on medical prescription
The Majorelle laboratory welcomed in a press release “this decision which will make it possible to strengthen access to masks that comply with European standards for the most fragile and deprived“. The laboratory “is now negotiating with the Economic Committee for Health Products (CEPS) in order to obtain a pricesale for this protective mask.
The Assanis mask will then be marketed in pharmacies; it will be the first protective surgical mask to be “included in the list of reimbursable products and services“said Health Insurance.
At present and since May 2, 2020, the price of single-use protective surgical masks cannot exceed 95 cents per unit.
In addition, since May 11, 2020, people who have tested positive for Covid-19 (and those around them) can be prescribed 14 masks per week by a doctor, delivered in pharmacies without upfront costs, while “people with very high medical risk” (in the event of severe immunosuppression, for example) benefit from 10 masks per week.
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