Many general practitioners (GPs) in Belgium will refuse to speak to patients over the phone from Saturday 15 February, as reimbursement for telephone consultations has been temporarily cancelled.
GPs have called for a "telephone strike," De Tijd reported, due to a lack of reimbursement for this type of appointment. "From 15 February to 15 March, we call on all GPs to no longer conduct any telephone consultations," an open letter circulating on GP platforms and social media read.
GPs will not be reimbursed for telephone consultations from 15 February, initially until the end of June. This is due to the enormous popularity of these doctor consultations, which range from assessing disease symptoms to communicating the results of a blood test.
"The teleconsultation saga is the straw that broke the camel's back. At the end of the day, it is always about the accessibility of our GP care," said Dr Jeroen van den Brandt, chair of GP association Domus Medica.
"When we campaign, that should be the core of the story. We demand strengthening measures for primary care that guarantee accessibility. Teleconsultations are an essential part of this. Reducing pointless (sickness) attestations is also part of that fight."
Surpassed budget
Remote consultations were popular during the Covid-19 pandemic, and were reimbursed as a result. Doctors receive almost €12 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 the RIZIV (National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance).
The measure was presumed to be temporary and budget-neutral – replacing physical consultations – but phone consultations are still offered by doctors across the country. In 2022, doctors charged the RIZIV for 2.3 million telephone consultations, rising to 6.3 million the following year. As a result, the budget was exceeded.
Reimbursement for such remote consultations has therefore been cancelled (even though in 2022 the RIZIV had decided to reimburse telephone consultations indefinitely). A new system is now being researched.
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The GPs participating in the strike want to show that cancelling telephone consultations "makes everything more expensive and less accessible." They argue that an in-person consultation costs the RIZIV three times more than a telephone appointment. Waiting times will also increase again without phone consultations.
It is still unclear how many doctors will strike, but De Tijd has reported there is widespread support for it. Many GPs have stressed the need for better agreements concerning such consultations.
To discuss this situation and determine a joint strategy, Domus Medica is calling presidents and directors of the GP circles together for a crisis council.
