When the behavior of a minority of specialists reflects on the entire medical community. At a time when doctors are crossing swords with the Minister of Health on the future of their profession, Daniel Rosenweg does not beat around the bush: “the scandal continues”.
In the columns of Parisian, the journalist reveals the conclusions of a new investigation into the overruns of doctors’ fees: “At the hospital, he sums up, care (is) billed five times more expensive than in a clinic”. Conducted by the website 66millionsdimpatients.org, and the association 60 million consumers, this study covers ten very common acts.
The examples speak for themselves. In 2013, for a cataract operation, health insurance reimburses up to 271.70 euros. With excess fees, the bill can reach 500 euros in the private sector but climb up to 2,000 euros if the operation is performed as part of the liberal activity of a hospital doctor.
For the removal of the prostate, the prices vary from 1 to 5 (800 euros in clinic against 4,200 euros in the public).
If only 4,480 full-time doctors at the hospital have the right to practice overruns, the amounts requested round off their end of the month very comfortably. In 2014, specifies the daily, these privileged few in the public service were able, on average, to inflate their annual income by 44,950 euros net (51,000 euros in Ile-de-France). In the list, gastroenterologists seem to be among the most reasonable (20,000 euros), far behind ophthalmologists (55,000 euros).
“These nimble-handed mandarins, writes the journalist, justify their excesses by their high qualification, their notoriety, and by the “weak” retirement that awaits them. Indeed, for fear of seeing its most prestigious doctors leave for a much more profitable private sector, the legislator opened this financial valve several years ago.
But now, these exorbitant overruns often remain the responsibility of the patients, because the complementary ones do not always support them, especially when they are so high. In addition, by taking the reins of the Ministry of Health, Marisol Touraine had promised to put order in these practices by limiting excesses and by bringing transparency into play. Conclusion of Christian Saout, secretary general of the CISS, collective representing patient associations, in the daily: “No response has been provided by the public authorities to these practices. »
