Even with a prescription.
“People don’t know it, we discovered it ourselves very recently” a medical secretary from an analysis laboratory told us last July. However, the decision was made on November 25, 2021 at Official Journal and has been in force since 2022. But as proof that the information has not been sufficiently shared by health services, Health Insurance published an “update” on the prescription and coverage of the dosage in question, at the beginning of 2024.
This dosage is particularly carried out in the fall and winter, due to the lack of sun, but it can be requested by the doctor throughout the year. However, a prescription is not enough to be reimbursed. And many French people do not know this. This blood test is that of the dosage of vitamin D. “Between 2015 and 2022, the number of vitamin D blood tests reimbursed by Health Insurance increased by 76%” defends health insurance in its famous information point. “There High Authority of Health concluded in 2013 that the dosage of vitamin D in the blood does not provide useful information to health professionals (…) yet more than 40 million euros of reimbursements are linked each year to these dosages” continues the organization.
Concretely, today, Health Insurance reimburses the dosage of vitamin D in six specific cases:
- suspected rickets
- suspected osteomalacia;
- Outpatient follow-up of adult kidney transplant recipients beyond three months after transplantation
- before and after bariatric surgery
- assessment and management of elderly people prone to repeated falls
- to comply with the summaries of product characteristics (SPCs) of drugs recommending the performance of act 1139.
Apart from these situations, the organisation considers that it is “no need to measure vitamin D, especially when starting or monitoring supplementation”. Vitamin D intake can be started without dosage but it is always better for the body to supplement because there is a deficiency, which only a blood test can confirm.
If the patient does not meet the six criteria set out above, the prescribing physician must indicate the non-reimbursable nature of the procedure by adding the words “HN” (out of the nomenclature) or “NR” (non-reimbursable) on the prescription next to the dosage of vitamin D. The patient must then pay for the procedure in full. “It cost me 19.63 euros” informs us a young woman whose doctor prescribed a dosage to look for a possible deficiency (deficiency which was confirmed during the results and required supplementation). “We inform people before the analysis is carried out if it cannot be reimbursed, specifies the medical secretary. Unfortunately, some people can’t pay so they don’t do it.”