An immediate saving of 68 million euros per year for a subsequent expenditure of 800 million euros! This is the subject of the dispute between the Minister of Health today and the various organizations representing rheumatologists and patients (1).
From 1er June, explains Daniel Rosenweg in The Parisian, intra-articular injections of hyaluronic acid in the knee will no longer be covered by health insurance. They are used to reduce the pain of patients who suffer from osteoarthritis.
A decision which is based, underlines the journalist, on the opinion of the Commission of evaluation of the medical devices which degraded the note of the medical service rendered of this technique.
With 700,000 operations performed each year and a unit cost of 120 euros, these injections cost the community 68 million euros per year.
Bad calculation, retort the specialists and the patients. On the strength of a petition signed by 400,000 people, they have just sent an open letter to the minister to contest this decision. It is, according to them, in contradiction with the commitments made by Marisol Touraine with regard to doctors and patients.
But above all, specialists believe that this technique “offers the best risk-benefit ratio in this disease”. Even if it remains moderate. In addition, the latter argue that this decision will penalize in priority the patients who will not have the means to resort to the lubrication of the joints to relieve their pain. The medicinal version of injectable hyaluronic acid offers an alternative to the medical device, replies the ministry.
But, according to the doctors interviewed by the daily, it would be less efficient and would require more frequent injections.
And to support their arguments, rheumatologists take out their calculator. With a statement. France has twice less recourse than many countries to total knee prostheses precisely because the disease is well taken care of upstream. By removing the reimbursement of the medical device, the market for prostheses will, according to them, inevitably climb. At a rate of 7,000 to 13,000 euros per unit, the bill should amount to 800 million euros per year.
(1) French College of Rheumatologists, French Society of Rheumatology, National Syndicate of Rheumatologists, Association Française de Lutte Anti-Rhumatismale, representing patients
