Telephone consultations with patients with or suspected of Covid-19 will be reimbursed like teleconsultations, the Health Ministry announced on Saturday. "After the decision to simplify and improve the reimbursement of access to remote medical consultations on video in the context of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Minister of Solidarity and Health authorized, by exception, consultations by telephone, "the ministry said in a statement.
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Teleconsultations explode
"When patients do not have access to digital technologies" - smartphone, internet or mobile connection ... - telephone consultations are authorized and will be covered by social security. They are however "reserved for patients with or suspected of Covid or in long-term affection or aged over 70 years" and authorized "by exception" only in the context of the health crisis, said the ministry.
Teleconsultations have taken off rapidly since the start of containment. According to figures published by the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam), between March 23 and 29, nearly half a million teleconsultations were billed, or more than one in ten consultations carried out in France, against less than 1% before the Covid-19 epidemic.
The teleconsultation has been reimbursed by social security since September 2018.