Suspended at the beginning of April, price negotiations between the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam) and the unions of private doctors will resume on May 16, the public body announced Friday May 3.
The next negotiation session “will be open (…) to unions wishing to succeed and may continue until the next day”specified the Cnam, for whom these two days of negotiations “ must allow the various unions to have a final text on the evening of May 17, which they can submit to their internal bodies and their members..
These price negotiations between private doctors and health insurance should make it possible to increase the remuneration of practitioners, in exchange for collective commitments for access to care.
The union of specialist doctors Avenir Spé-Le Bloc, which plays a pivotal role in the negotiations, confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) its presence at this new round of discussions. “There has been progress” in informal discussions with Cnam management, and “we are therefore returning to the negotiating table”, assured AFP Doctor Patrick Gasser, co-president of Avenir Spé-Le Bloc. This union plays a key role in the negotiations, because it can sign on its own on behalf of the specialist doctors. MG France, which has the same power of representation for general practitioners, had already announced that it was ready to resume discussions.
Disagreement over tariff proposals
At the beginning of April, when discussions on medical prices for the next five years seemed to be in the home stretch, they were suspended at the instigation of the specialist doctors’ unions. They denounced both the pricing proposals made to them, and, in a separate area, the rates planned for 2024 by the government for private clinics, in which many of them operate.
The government has planned to increase the prices of private clinics by 0.3% for 2024, compared to + 4.3% for public hospitals. The Minister for Health, Frédéric Valletoux, justified this difference by the fact that “the private sector has experienced strong momentum in recent years”. “This explains why its prices increase less quickly because the regulation of prices also depends on the volumes of activity. The growth in private sector activity is strong and will logically support the financial results of private establishments”he explained in an interview with Echoes March 27.
“It’s a full-blown attack on liberals, particularly on specialistsPatrick Gasser then denounced. Clinics are our working tool. This price difference is serious, it means that a large proportion of small establishments, already in difficulty, will disappear. »
Resumption of negotiations with Cnam “do not question” the support of Avenir Spé-Le Bloc for the movement of private clinics on June 3, which have their own negotiations underway with the government, specified Doctor Gasser.