2024-02-08 15:08:30
Negotiations between liberal doctors and Social Security are getting tough. This Thursday, Health Insurance proposed increasing the basic price of consultation with the general practitioner from 26.50 to 30 euros and promised increases in income “specific to each of the specialties”.
“These price changes will only be implemented if they are accompanied by other changes in favor of improving the health of the population,” however, warns Health Insurance in its press release published on the sidelines of a session negotiation with all liberal unions.
“Massive” investment
Started last fall, negotiations between doctors’ unions and Health Insurance will continue for several more weeks, with a view to a new major negotiation session “in the first half of March”.
At this stage, Health Insurance has not specified what means it intends to release to improve doctors’ income even if it promises a “massive investment in private medicine”. And the liberal doctors’ unions had not yet left the negotiating session to react to the proposals made this Thursday afternoon.
They have been waiting for months for an increase in their remuneration from Social Security. Last year, Health Insurance had already proposed to pay general practitioners 30 euros, on the condition that they make certain “commitments” relating to the number of patients followed, the opening of their practices on weekends, etc. .
End of non-receipt
Rejecting this “give and take”, supposed to alleviate the problem of medical deserts, the unions refused to sign an agreement with Health Insurance, to the great dismay of the government. After this refusal, an “arbitrator” proposed in the spring to increase the price of the consultation to 26.50 euros (from November).
A stopgap for the unions. Even if general practitioners received around 180,000 euros per year in fees on average in 2020, they have not stopped in recent months denouncing the impact of inflation on their finances (with an increase in charges attributing fees) and often difficult working conditions against a backdrop of lack of practitioners.
Anxious to renew dialogue with a profession which has not hesitated to take to the streets several times in 2023, the executive had already opened the door to an increase in remuneration to encourage more young doctors to open practices in town. .
Long-term patient monitoring
However, the government wants doctors to commit to monitoring more patients over the long term, rather than carrying out one-night-only consultations with occasional patients. Hence the proposal made by Health Insurance last December to increase by almost 20% the fixed remuneration of doctors who undertake to be treating doctors for many patients. Knowing that the package in question represents around 10% of the remuneration of a general practitioner today.
“Doctors who wish may, as a group, be paid in a fully flat-rate form,” Health Insurance also clarified this Thursday.
However, the negotiations are far from over. Faced with soaring health spending, against a backdrop of population aging and the development of chronic diseases, Health Insurance would like doctors to commit to optimizing their prescriptions, for example by ensuring that they do not prescribe antibiotics only wisely.
She warned this Thursday that she intended to make another meeting with the unions of private doctors at the end of next year to verify that the decisions taken within the framework of the current negotiations have “the expected effects” on the access to care but also their quality and relevance.
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