2024-01-08 15:39:28
Published on Jan 8, 2024 at 10:00 a.m. Updated on Jan 8, 2024 at 2:39 p.m.
Teleconsultation companies are preparing to enter a new era. By the end of the year, they must have obtained approval for their patients to be reimbursed by Social Security. An important step for this very young sector which is still looking for a place in the world of health.
“We give ourselves all the guarantees to avoid abuses,” explains Jean-Pascal Piermé, president of the LET, the organization representing telemedicine companies. For example, “it will not be possible to impose on doctors a number of procedures per hour, companies will not be able to belong to pharmaceutical laboratories or suppliers of medical devices”. They must also have an independent medical committee.
Independent medical committee
” I think that [cette réglementation] will give legitimacy to the sector,” believes Nathaniel Bern, co-founder of the teleconsultation company Medadom.
Allowing patients to consult a doctor via an application or by going to a cabin equipped with connected devices, teleconsultation companies, such as Qare, Medadom, Livi, Tessan, have multiplied in recent years against a backdrop of pandemic and medical deserts.
Criticisms of liberal doctors’ unions
Due to a lack of specific supervision, they have often operated until today by relying on health centers employing doctors. A shaky solution since these health centers are supposed to offer physical reception, cannot be profitable and must carry out a maximum of 20% of their activity remotely.
Even if teleconsultations remain very marginal, the companies that offer them are regularly criticized by political leaders and unions of liberal doctors. The latter see it as a potential source of disorganization of the health system. The sector also found itself in the sights of the government keen to avoid abusive work stoppages.
A “wild west” for Health Insurance
To restore order to what the director of Health Insurance, Thomas Fatôme, had described as the “wild west”, the Social Security budget voted in 2022 therefore plans to “clarify the requirements” incumbent on health insurance companies. teleconsultation by asking them to adopt an ad hoc status at the beginning of 2024.
Implementation of the regulations took longer than expected. At the beginning of January, professionals were still waiting for the publication of a decree to be clear on their new obligations, even if they knew the broad outlines. “Today most companies cover 80 to 85% of the obligations but will have the year to respect the specifications,” assures Jean-Pascal Piermé of the LET.
IT developments
Obtaining approval, however, comes at a cost for the companies concerned. In particular to secure exchanges between doctors and patients. “We had to review a large part of our IT development roadmap. This resulted in reorganization and recruitment,” explains Maxime Leneylé, manager of Tessan.
The model of certain companies should also be shaken up and professionals in the sector warn that certain players could disappear. The new regulation requires significant investments while companies will no longer have the aid obtained by the health centers with which they previously operated.
Furthermore, the industry expects that it will be more difficult than before to charge a service fee to the client, in addition to the price of the consultation. “If we want to produce quality, it has a cost and the only way to balance our accounts is to be able to collect these service fees,” says Olivier Thierry, the boss of the Qare company. “It’s still a model that is barely in balance. We must not put too many obstacles in our way,” warns Felix Motosso, director of Livi in France.
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