In 2023, a patient will be able to download the apCV application on his smartphone in order to access his dematerialized vital card. How does this Social Security system work?
- One of the objectives of the dematerialized vital card is to further digitize the French health system.
- Several French departments have already experimented with the dematerialized vital card.
Created in 1998, the vital card will soon be accessible dematerialized from the smartphone as announced by a decree, published in Official newspaper and entered into force on January 1, 2023.
According to Ameli Healththe Health Insurance platform, the objective of the dematerialized vital card is “to streamline relations between healthcare professionals and policyholders”. Indeed, the organization said that there is more chance that a patient presents his vital card on his phone, which will facilitate the transmission with Social Security. This dematerialization of the vital card will also reduce the risk of manual contamination.
How to use the dematerialized vital card?
A patient must download the apCV application, available on smartphones and tablets, in order to obtain their dematerialized vital card. The insured will then be able to consult his personal space and find the data of his vital card.
To read the information contained in the application, healthcare professionals will have two options:
- they will be able to use different devices such as a hand shower, a camera or a mobile application installed on their smartphones in order to read the QR code displayed on the patient’s apCV application;
- they will be able to use an NCF reader on which the insured using the apCV application will place their smartphone as during a contactless payment. However, this system is not compatible with IPhones and certain Android smartphones.
“Health Insurance recommends the use of the QR code, because this technology is compatible with all smartphones”can we read on Ameli Santé.
Dematerialized vital card: what about data security?
On its platform, Health Insurance is reassuring: the apCV application has the same level of security as the physical vital card. She explains that there are only surnames, first names, gender and/or sex, quality and mandatory organization of attachment that are present in the application. In addition, each use of the device requires double authentication by the insured’s smartphone and by a personal secret code.
When will the dematerialized vital card be deployed?
In 2022, the dematerialized vital card was deployed in eight health insurance funds during an experiment: Alpes-Maritimes, Bas-Rhin, Loire-Atlantique, Puy-de-Dôme, Rhône, Saône -et-Loire, Sarthe and Seine-Maritime.
During the year 2023, this system will be generalized to the whole territory, but the government has given itself until 2026 to perpetuate the dematerialized vital card.
