2023-11-15 08:46:09
Published on Nov. 15, 2023 at 7:46 a.m. Updated on Nov. 15, 2023 at 9:20 a.m.
The government always seeks to “empower” patients to prevent them from missing their medical appointment without warning. But he remains evasive on the means that can be implemented to avoid these “rabbits”.
“Hundreds of thousands of appointments are lost in a country where we have problems accessing care,” lamented Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau on Tuesday on Sud Radio. While the liberal doctors’ unions begin negotiations this Wednesday with Health Insurance on their conditions of practice and remuneration, the minister assures that he has asked “to put this point on the agenda” because “we must make the people “.
“Real scourge”
The phenomenon is regularly denounced in the ranks of the liberal doctors’ unions, where the figure of 28 million appointments not honored per year is put forward. “A real scourge,” denounces Franck Devulder, of the CSMF union. For the latter, these “rabbits mainly concern young patients without a treating doctor”. As a solution, he suggests forcing patients to confirm their appointment after a reminder SMS but also mentions a “financial sanction”.
Faced with French people who are worried about medical deserts, the executive has several times promised to take the subject head on. At the start of the year, Emmanuel Macron suggested penalizing “a little” patients who fail. Gabriel Attal, when he was Minister of Public Accounts, had mentioned the possibility of less reimbursement for the patient at fault for the following treatment. It did not materialize.
Operational issues
In recent days, senators have put the subject back on the table as part of the examination of the Social Security budget. An amendment adopted by the Social Affairs Committee provides for “charging insured persons who do not honor a community healthcare appointment with a lump sum fixed by decree, for the benefit of Health Insurance”.
“Part of this sum, defined within the framework of conventional negotiations, could be paid by Health Insurance to the healthcare professionals concerned as compensation,” specifies the amendment tabled by Senator LR Corinne Imbert. As the draft Social Security budget is promised to be adopted without a vote (via article 49.3), it is the government which will have the last word on this idea.
However, the implementation of what some call the “rabbit tax” raises operational problems. “It would be quite simple if everyone made an appointment on a platform but that is not the case,” noted Aurélien Rousseau on Tuesday. His predecessor, François Braun, also called for the importance of the phenomenon to be put into perspective and stressed that appointments not kept could simply be the result of forgetfulness.
In the meantime, Health Insurance launched an information campaign on the subject in October.
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