In the Mediator case, the Health Insurance has shown relaxation, according to an association. On the eve of its ban, 300,000 people were still taking it as an appetite suppressant.
4 million boxes of the drug Mediator reimbursed on the eve of its ban, in November 2009. It is at the end of a long battle that the association Initiative Transparence Santé (ITS) managed to obtain these figures, issued “to the account drop. “They underline, according to the association, that the National Health Insurance Fund for salaried workers (CNAMTS)” has allowed massive unjustified prescriptions to continue. “
The South of France more concerned
The rates of use of the Mediator, made public by the Transparency Health Initiative, are shivers down the spine. Between 2008 and 2010, nearly 379,000 consumers were reimbursed for this drug. Among them, a minority were being treated for diabetes. The rate of prescription without marketing authorization (MA) is considerable: 80%. According to data provided by the CNAMTS, general practitioners are overwhelmingly responsible for these prescriptions as appetite suppressants, since the vast majority (92%) are responsible for reimbursements. Endocrinologists and internal medicine specialists follow.
The many policyholders who have received the Mediator as an appetite suppressant are distributed strangely. As shown on the map, drawn up by Initiative Transparence Santé, the departments of the South of France are very dominant. PACA, Corsica and Languedoc-Roussillon are far ahead of the other regions, followed by Nord-Pas-de-Calais. On the other hand, the west of France seems to be concerned by the prescriptions of the Mediator on the eve of its ban.
Source: Health Transparency Initiative / Cnamts
“The inaction of the Cnamts”
More than the magnitude of this data, it is “the inaction of the CNAMTS in this affair” that Iniative Transparence Santé criticizes. Because, in addition to an opacity of the figures “which would make it possible to understand the reasons which led the Mediator affair to occur”, ITS considers that a “stricter follow-up of the prescriptions accompanied by an action with the doctors would have allowed probably avoid hundreds. According to a forensic expert opinion, the Mediator is responsible for 220 to 300 deaths and could ultimately cause another 1300 to 1800 more.
Last July, a request for access to health data on the drug was sent to the CNAMTS, which refused. The Caisse d’Accès aux Documents Administratifs (CADA), in December 2013, forced the Director of Health Insurance to communicate them. “The SNIRAM database was set up […] in order, in particular, to contribute to knowledge of the expenditure of all health insurance schemes and ensure the transmission to health professionals of information relating to their activity, their income and their prescriptions ”, points out the opinion. .
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