public hospitals urge the executive to “significantly” increase their prices

Particularly due to inflation, current prices “no longer correspond to the reality of care costs” and “no longer make it possible to finance the real activity of hospitals”, estimates the French Hospital Federation.

Public hospitals, affected by a historic deficit, called on the executive to increase “significantly” their hospitalization rates, Friday March 1st. They believe that the prices have become “obsolete”, due in particular to inflation, particularly for full hospitalizations and major care. In a context of constrained finances, the public authorities must soon make their decisions concerning the evolution for 2024 of hospitalization rates covered by health insurance, as they do every year.

Current prices “no longer correspond to the reality of care costs” And “no longer make it possible to finance the real activity of hospitals”deplores the French Hospital Federation (FHF, public hospitals). “Since 2020, the evolution of prices has not been able to cover the increase in the real costs of establishments, which can be explained by the evolution of the typology of patients treated and the dynamics of salary costs”she writes, estimating that the prices have dropped “9 to 10% since 2020”.

Impossible equation

In addition to exceptional inflation, “useful salary increase measures” (Ségur health measures, upgrades in the civil service, increase in remuneration for night and weekend guards) have only been partially compensated, argues the FHF. “Even establishments with dynamic activity are experiencing a deterioration in their financial situation” and the cumulative deficit of establishments “doubled between 2019 and 2022” to reach 1.6 billion euros in 2023.

This 2024 pricing campaign has all the makings of an impossible equation. The executive must distribute the envelope between the public and private sectors, each of which is demanding an increase of around 10%. But the national health insurance spending objective (Ondam) for the year, adopted with the Social Security budget in the fall, only allows us to hope, according to the Federation of Private Hospitals, for an increase of 3.2%. Since then, Bercy has revised its growth forecasts and announced new savings plans.