Telemedicine : the negotiations on the price of consultations are launched

Health 18 January, 2018


verbaska/epictura

Published the 18.01.2018 at 21h01



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télémédecineremboursement

Consult his doctor or a specialist through a web cam, and see her consultation refunded : this should soon be widespread in France. The government wants to develop the telemedicine, which will help fight against the medical deserts. The trade unions of the liberal doctors and the national health insurance Fund (CNAM) will meet Thursday to negotiate. It is a question of defining the scope of application of this new kind of medicine and to determine rates.
Two types of online consultation will be discussed from today : tele-consultation, which are of medical consultations conducted at a distance, and the tele-expertise, in this case it is a specialist who gives his opinion after having been requested by a general practitioner. The discussions do not relate to the monitoring station, which consists of placing monitoring devices in patients.

The long-term illnesses, first refunded

On the side of the CNAM, the aim is to start by repaying the patients with long-term medical condition. Some are less mobile or live in medical deserts, the teleconsultation could improve the quality of their care. As for the CNAM, the goal is to avoid an explosion of the consultations, and therefore costs.
The trade unions of the liberal doctors require taking account of the costs of financing equipment. The CNAM considers that this type of consultation must be paid as a consulting classic. For the trade unions of the liberal doctors, the price must vary depending on whether it is a simple medical advice or a medical check up.

The negotiations are expected to last until the end of the month of march.