From 15 February, Belgium's National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (NIHDI) will no longer reimburse telephone consultations for GPs.
The decision was taken by the National Medical-Mutual Commission (Medicomut). Initially, this suspension will last until the end of June.
During this period, a working group will develop a clearer framework for remote consultations and propose measures to prevent abuses, Het Belang van Limburg reported on Thursday.
Remote consultations found new relevance during the Covid-19 pandemic and are still by doctors offered across the country. Currently, doctors receive €11.93 per telephone consultation, of which €2 is supposed to be paid by the patient. However, this patient contribution is often not collected in practice, as it is more expensive for the doctor to bill and collect this cost remotely.
As a result, doctors typically receive around €10 for such consultations from NIHDI. In 2022, doctors charged NIHDI for 2.3 million telephone consultations, rising to 6.3 million the following year.
Federal Health Minister Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit) concluded last year that the €10 per consultation cost was too high.
