SOS Médecins fears that negotiations on new medical prices will lead to the end of home visits

The end of home visits? In any case, this is the concern expressed by the SOS Médecins association, which has around 1,300 member doctors, in a press release published Friday March 29. She “calls on Health Insurance and the government not to degrade access to care by neglecting home visits”and expresses concern that the latter are already greatly compromised, “failure to find willing doctors to carry them out.” She explains this phenomenon by the fact that “many doctors prefer fixed point consultations, financially two to three times more attractive”.

The share of home visits has already been considerably reduced since the beginnings of SOS Médecins in 1966, when they then constituted all of the actions of member doctors. This reduction accelerated from 2019, and today, home visits only represent a third of their activity. The association, present in around sixty French cities, fears being excluded from the scope of the revaluations and price increases planned as part of the negotiations with Health Insurance.

Questioned by AFP, Health Insurance and doctor’s unions deferred questions on this subject to the next negotiating session, which will take place on Thursday. SOS Médecins nevertheless claimed that “all acute care visits” are priced at 70 euros. Today, the price of these daytime visits is set at 36.50 euros. The association also calls for “the establishment of a penalty of 100 euros per hour” for doctors available to make home visits on call from the Samu or the access to care service, the new 15 which redirects certain patients to community medicine.