While the Barnier government seeks to make savings by all means, and at the same time the number ofsick leave has been on the rise for months, government services are relentlessly tracking fraudsters. But despite all their efforts, we still find on the Internet websites that offer fake certificates for modest amounts. Find out what the punishments are for those who dare.
While the budget for 2025 must be based on expenditure reductions, Sygesikringen warns of growth “unsustainable” expenses in connection with work stoppages. This was explained by the director of the National Health Insurance Fund, Thomas Fatôme compensation costs for those on sick leave was strongly increasing (+8% in the first half of 2024), which could represent a cost of “17 billion euros” at the end of the year.
Fake sick report available in minutes
Although it is difficult to know how large a proportion, part of the increase in sick leave can be explained by the surprising ease with which fakes can be obtained on the Internet. For some time now, the law has given a patient the option of obtaining a residence permit a simple teleconsultation. However, this measure to alleviate the overcrowding in GPs’ offices requires that there be a real consultation, i.e. video contact between doctor and patient.
But many sites allow you to do so‘obtain judgments without consultationwhich is illegal. In fact, it only takes a few clicks to answer a questionnaire, sometimes it is not even necessary to detail your symptoms to get a certificate. While the shutdown in teleconsultation cannot exceed three days, these malicious sites make it possible to achieve longer delays and even select the dates for which one is exempt from work. At a price of between 9 and 19 euros, there are more and more of them.
photo credit: Shutterstock A fake sick report in three clicks.
Sanctions for users of false sickness reports
The state’s services are well aware of the extent of the problem and have already intervened. In 2020, they achieved administrative closure of the site arretmédie.fr, but it came back under a different name. However, the health insurance does not give up. “With every new site, we request by a court order blocking access to the domain name by Internet service providers.” But scammers copy the sites as quickly as the courts ban them.
Furthermore, Sygesikringen points out the accrued sanctions. “The sanctions pronounced by Sygesikring can amount to three times the amount of the economic damagebut is of course adapted to each situation. In the event of a false stop of a few days, the insured risks a financial fine of a few hundred euros.”
photo credit: Shutterstock The health insurance is on the hunt for fraudsters.
Health insurance strengthens control
In July 2024, Sygesikringen published a report on the phenomenon and intends to strengthen controls to better detect fake certificates. Since September, policyholders have had to fill out new types of forms that are supposed to be more secure. These certificates will even be mandatory from June 2025. In addition, doctors working for teleconsultation companies will have to register and will only be able to transmit judgments via the amelipro platform.
photo credit: Shutterstock The health insurance has implemented a new type of certificate.
Health Insurance also plans to beef up its cyber investigators unit to track down 2.0 fraudsters who sell these fake outages on the Internet, social networks and even sometimes on the dark web. These studies have already made it possible discover 5 million euros in financial damage of fraud in 2022 and 7.9 million in 2023. A figure that is expected to increase further in 2024.
