A new report produced by two French government bodies, the IGAS (general inspectorate of social affairs) and the IGS (general inspectorate of finance), has led to a firm response from the country’s thousands of private radiologists.
The document was commissioned a year ago by two ministers from the former government, who called for “renewing current or previous regulatory protocols to promote greater efficiency, including by reintroducing unconventional flexibility, i.e., by circumventing the recently signed medical convention,” according to a press release issued on 18 July by the FNMR, France's national union of private radiologists.
Of the 17 recommendations made by the authors of the report, the main proposal is to remove radiology from the medical convention and allow for state regulation by allowing arbitrary fee reductions, the FNMR stated. It claimed the document “ignores medical reality” and is based on four basic lies:
- Income. In determining radiologists’ salaries, the authors of the report confuse revenues and profits by not considering expenses and by focusing on the amount of technical flat-rate fees paid to the owners of CT and MRI scanners, including hospitals and clinics, according to the FNMR.
- Profitability. The report denounces a high level of profitability, but it uses a sample that is not representative and ignores the reality of the expenses borne by radiology facilities (real estate, staff salaries, IT, energy, etc.), the FNMR noted.
- Equipment renewal. The authors of the report state that radiologists replace their equipment for financial reasons. They propose keeping CT and MRI scanners for 14 years instead of seven years, even though the average lifespan of an essential IT system is five years, according to the FNMR. Increasing the number of years of equipment use will result in less effective examinations and lost opportunities for patients, it said.
- Number of devices. The report claims that increasing the number of devices increases activity, but in reality, it is the medical needs of patients that justify increasing the number of devices to reduce already excessively long appointment times, the FNMR said.
If implemented, this report will “establish a health dictatorship” and lead to “the death of private medicine, including radiology,” the FNMR pointed out. It calls on the ministers in charge to denounce this report and confirm the validity of the medical convention for all private medicine.
