After the strike of liberal doctors and the government’s promise to “renew the dialogue”Health Insurance announced Thursday to engage “starting this week” discussions with unions, particularly on sick leave requirements, fee overruns and prices for technical procedures. From January 5 to 15, liberal doctors went on strike at the call of all their unions, closing offices and operating theaters in certain clinics, to protest against various measures in the Social Security budget and to defend their “freedom of exercise”.
The inter-union had “suspended” the movement, after having obtained from the Minister of Health Stéphanie Rist commitments to withdraw contested measures and that of quickly “renew the dialogue”. Discussions between health insurance and unions (MG France, CSMF, Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, UFML-S, FMF, SML) are underway “starting this week”Health Insurance said in a press release on Thursday.
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“Move forward very concretely”
The discussions must allow “to move forward very concretely” on various themes, including “work related to work stoppages”according to Health Insurance, which wishes to better control expenses or “the evolution of fee overruns”a practice that has become massive and has an impact on access to care and the purchasing power of the French.
They will also address the new nomenclature of acts, i.e. the precise list of technical acts and the amounts reimbursed by Social Security. Certain prices have not changed for thirty years, to the great dismay of specialist doctors, who believe that they are “forced” to apply overruns. Doctors and Health Insurance will discuss imaging prices again, to possibly reconsider certain price reductions planned by the health authorities, “provided that the planned level of savings is maintained” (300 million euros), according to a letter from Stéphanie Rist to the unions.
The discussions will initially be “bilateral” with each union, which will allow “at the end and based on these, to define a framework and a timetable for negotiations if necessary”specifies Health Insurance to AFP. The representative unions all have a first meeting between this Thursday and next weekend.
