Disappointment for physiotherapists. In order to support them in relation to inflation, Sygesikringen offers them a – very – small increase in consultation fees. During a “flash” negotiation session with the physiotherapists’ unions, the head of Sécu, Thomas Fatôme, was actually less lenient than during the conventional negotiations that ended in failure at the end of last year. While the fees used as a basis for refunding the most common actions could have increased by two euros in July 2023, they will only be increased by around 50 cents… from January 2024.
This tariff negotiation was exceptionally opened at the request of the Minister of Health and Prevention François Braun. The former emergency physician spoke in May to representatives of massage therapists and other paramedical professions who raised the alarm about explosive devices. But as the unions feared, the health insurance response is not up to the emergency.
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3% increase in consultation fees
“We are offered two options which are not interesting”, cowardly, bitter, Sébastien Guérard, president of the French association of rehabilitative massage therapists (FFMKR). The first is to increase all physical therapy actions by 3%. A physiotherapy session to rehabilitate a wrist should thus cost 16.61 euros instead of 16.13 euros at the moment. The second option, on the other hand, values only certain actions, especially the most common ones, such as ankle or knee rehabilitation. Therefore, complete more specific care such as vestibular physiotherapy (which is particularly aimed at reducing vertigo). For patients, the basic price for a physiotherapy session for an ankle or a knee will also increase by around 50 øre. But no increase for more specialized physiotherapists.
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A missed opportunity
At the end of the negotiation meeting with Cnam, the unions did not hide their disappointment. “Negotiations that are still not,” wrote further Twitter Syndicate of Rehabilitative Massage Therapists (SNMKR). The latter had already in December 2022 rejected endorsement 7 proposed by the Health Insurance, which was much more advantageous in relation to reassessing the prices of physiotherapy consultations. The amount of the fees for a rehabilitation of a member serving as a basis for reimbursement to Social Security could actually have increased to 18.06 euros… And this from July of this year.
For the chairman of the FFMKR, Sébastien Guérard, this is clearly a missed opportunity. “Cnam is putting an envelope of 150 million euros on the table when we could have benefited from 530 million if we had all signed amendment 7 in December”, he complains, while his union is the only one to sign this document last . winter.
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A new price increase in 2025?
Apparently, the game is not totally lost. Dissatisfied with the proposals of the director general of health insurance, the head of FFMKR wants to put endorsement 7 back on the table, which has previously been rejected by the other two trade unions of massage therapists, namely SNMKR and Alizé. “Thomas Fatôme has not closed the door to this idea as long as it is signed by the three unions as it is”, confides the capital’s Sébastien Guérard. However, if the document is signed by all the unions, it will not apply until the beginning of 2025, when it could have appreciated physiotherapists this summer if it had been signed at the end of 2022. “ We will have lost a year and a half when the time is now to act against inflation. In the meantime, the weight of the loads will continue to increase”, torments the president of the French association of rehabilitative masseurs-physiotherapists. Contacted on this matter, Cnam has currently not responded to our requests.
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Raising the price of the consultation to 18.06 euros from July might stop the leakage of masseuses-physiotherapists going bankrupt. Some choose to further their education in alternative medicine, such as osteopathy, while others sail abroad in the hope of better recognition of their profession. Especially since many were hoping for a price increase of 20 euros to compensate for inflation since the last increase given by Social Security in 2012. To reach such an amount, it will probably be necessary to wait until the next contractual negotiations, which are planned for 2027.
