Online medical appointment platforms will “play the game” to allow the collection of the future “rabbit tax”, a sanction of five euros applied to patients who do not honor their appointment, assured Thursday the Minister Delegate for Health. Health, after reluctance expressed by Doctolib. From 2025, patients who do not show up and do not cancel at least 24 hours in advance will face a penalty of five euros, which will go into the doctor’s pocket, Prime Minister Gabriel announced on Saturday Attal. The practitioner can choose to collect it or not.
“20% of patients in a situation of illiteracy”
The amount will be retained via the patient’s bank imprint, taken before the appointment by online platforms, secretariats or the caregivers themselves, he specified. But on these technical aspects, the CEO of the main Doctolib platform, Stanislas Niox-Château, expressed some doubts. “We must not create a new administrative burden for caregivers and hinder access to care,” he declared on France Inter on Wednesday.
“There are 20% of patients who are in a situation of illiteracy, and 5% who do not have a bank card, it is unthinkable to hinder access to care for them,” he explained. . “How will practitioners manage the majority of appointments that are not made online (…), manage patient complaints, disputes (…). It is unimaginable to envisage that the secretariats will register bank cards”, he further estimated.
The platforms will only cover “half of the appointments”
Questioned Thursday on Sud Radio, the Minister for Health Frédéric Valletoux wanted to reassure. “It’s a problem of technical coordination” and “I understand that there are organizational issues”, but this idea of a penalty, “it was Doctolib who himself proposed it a few months ago “, said Frédéric Valletoux.
Doctolib “is not the only player” and “all the platforms will play the game, we will put this in place with them”, he assured. “Nevertheless, we will only cover half of the appointments” thus, since today the other half is taken by secretariats or the doctors themselves, the minister specified. For doctors, “it is not a huge administrative task (…) technically it is feasible”.
He indicated that this penalty will come into force “from January 1, 2025” thanks to a law which will be presented to parliament “in the summer” or “in the fall”.