While medical teleconsultations are increasing in periods of confinement against the coronavirus, the Doctolib platform is the subject of criticism. Some doctors accuse the site of profiting financially from the health crisis. In particular, they want proof of this by setting up additional costs to be paid by practitioners for each remote examination.
The new measure was announced to several doctors on Friday in an email sent by Doctolib, reports the Huffington Post .
A 1% charge
It concerns online payments by patients, the portal of which now charges 1% for bank charges. "It's a bit like when some people raised the prices of hydroalcoholic gels at the start of the epidemic," says a general practitioner. I did teleconsultations every afternoon last week. In March, this represented around 1,300 euros in fees, from which they will therefore charge me 13 euros. "
Doctolib had nevertheless promised an "all inclusive and no additional cost" formula, say practitioners on social networks. Others refer to subscriptions to services offered by the platform which already cost "more than 200 euros per month for a doctor with Doctolib agenda, teleconsultation and double bank charges".
A boom in teleconsultations
The company justifies the application of bank charges previously offered by the boom in teleconsultations in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. "These are fees that we can no longer afford to offer" when the dematerialized appointments are 50 times more numerous than before, explains the site to HuffPost.
Doctolib also says that it negotiated these commissions, initially set at 1.5%. The platform now says to pay consultations to doctors every week, instead of every month, and not to charge them the subscription to teleconsultation during the crisis "in order to participate in the national effort".
Health
Nearly one in two general practitioners refuses new patients, according to UFC-Que Choisir
Health
Hauts-de-France: "Telemedicine is only a tool, not an answer to medical deserts"
- Doctor
- Coronavirus
- Covid 19
- Health