A health collective estimates the increase in fee overruns in two years for health professionals at 9%. First, there are dentists and specialists.
Fee overruns for liberal health professionals are still on the rise! The latter have indeed increased by 9% in two years for medical specialists alone. And dental surgeons are particularly singled out.
According to the first study by a new Observatory, created this Monday, May 27, by three structures, the magazine 60 million consumers, the interassociative collective on health (CISS), and Santéclair, a company specializing in health risk, the French paid 40 billion euros to liberal healthcare professionals in 2012, 27 of which were reimbursed by health insurance. Of the 13 billion that remained payable by patients (or their mutual funds), “more than 7 billion are attributable to fee overruns alone”, specifies the observatory.
In addition, it should be noted that the largest proportion of the remainder paid by patients comes from overruns by dental surgeons (82.9%). Finally, the study also reveals significant differences between regions. Medical overruns are especially high in Paris, Lyon and the Alpes-Maritimes. In order to try to remedy the problem, the Observatory affirms “to want to look in the future on these overruns which affect many French people, in order to find solutions”.
In October 2012, an agreement described as “historic” by the public authorities had been signed between the Health Insurance, the unions of liberal doctors and complementary health insurance. To limit abuse in excess fees, health insurance wanted to trigger a sanction process beyond 70 euros, or 2.5 the basic rate of social security. This provision has disappeared from the draft final agreement. This threshold is no more than a benchmark made available to the authorities which will impose sanctions against doctors in the event of abuse. “Excessive overruns will also be determined based on a set of criteria,” says the text.
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