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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director)
Are you used to booking your medical appointments via Doctolib? You should soon be able to pay for your consultation directly online, the platform’s general director announced yesterday.
“Check or card?” The question may no longer arise at the end of the consultation to settle with your GP. This Wednesday, March 20 in the Senate, Jean-Urbain Hubau, the general director of Doctolib, indeed mentioned a new option for “fluidify” the medical journey: payment directly online for your consultation, on Doctolib.
Payment possible via the application
The option that already existed for teleconsultations would therefore be extended to so-called “physical” consultations, in the office. Concretely, once the appointment has been selected from the Doctolib application, you will soon be offered to pay for your consultation from your mobile as you pay for any order today.
Doctolib will ask the user to enter their bank card number when making an appointment, and to grant direct debit authorization.
A way to facilitate the patient journey?
The general director of Doctolib, Jean-Urbain Hubau, intends to simplify making appointments a little further:
“The idea is to make the act of charging completely non-existent. Or at least painless, transparent and fluid. Whether via third-party payer or patient payment” he said.
Unless this payment is also a good way of ensuring that patients come, when 6 and 10% of insured people do not show up for their medical appointments…
In any case, this online payment should come into play from the second quarter of 2024. Third-party payment will be available by the end of the year. Please note, however, that this online payment will not immediately concern all medical specialties. Its implementation will be gradual.
The opinion of Dr Gérald Kierzek, medical director of Doctissimo
This option is a bit like a restaurant! This can make it possible to implement the rabbit tax by, for example, making a deduction or not reimbursing consultations not honored. But I still see a problem: Doctolib becomes a monopolist on the patient’s care pathway. It should be a public service and not a private one.