The number of teleconsultations has jumped since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, with a record of 80,000 acts performed last week, said AFP's Health Insurance on Wednesday, confirming information from the medical magazine Le Généraliste .
Some 80,000 procedures were billed by doctors between March 16 and 22, according to the National Health Insurance Fund. This is twice as much as during the month of February alone (40,000) or the first half of March (35,000).
Practice was slow to take off
The Covid-19 epidemic has clearly boosted this practice, which has been slow to take off since the reimbursement came into effect in September 2018. Teleconsultations last week thus represent a quarter of the total number of acts (320,000) carried out in 18 months.
At the beginning of March, the government facilitated the use of this practice by lifting the obligation to go through its attending physician for patients with coronavirus and patients "presenting the symptoms" of this disease. It is also reimbursed 100% by Health Insurance since Saturday and "for the duration of the epidemic", according to the Ministry of Health.