Merging the Vitale card and the identity card, useful to fight against fraud? This is what Gabriel Attal argued on Tuesday. The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts has not yet revealed the terms of the measure, but intends with this announcement to strengthen the fight against fraud, which was already one of the objectives of the last Social Security financing bill. The subject of social benefits fraud has stirred public debate for many years and reports on the issue are piling up.
This merger proposal is only one of the possible measures to combat fraud. A project is also underway, as reminds him the Court of Auditors, so that agents of social protection organizations can directly access civil status data through a platform linked to town halls and prefectures.
“Very strong reserves”
In a letter revealed this Thursday, the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM), expressed “very strong reservations” on the impact of such a measure. Fraud is indeed multiple and difficult to characterize, as recognized him the Director General of Health Insurance, Thomas Fâtome, in a press kit in September: “There is no fraud in Health Insurance but multiple and diverse frauds: invoicing of fictitious or over-invoiced services, usurpation of ‘identity of healthcare professionals or insured persons to divert reimbursements, false declarations of resources, falsification of prescriptions, etc.’ The amount is difficult to estimate, due to the changing nature of the fraud. It is also sometimes difficult to distinguish what is fraud or error or negligence.
Health Insurance only has a partial photograph of the fraud. It estimates that nearly 2/3 of the fraud it detects comes from healthcare professionals. In question, “non-compliance with regulations or nomenclature, fictitious acts or even prescription fraud”. A point partly disputed by doctors, who denounce administrative mismanagement mistaken for fraud.
The Health Insurance has also reinforced the controls of the insured, which is the objective of the measure presented by Gabriel Attal. It recalls that since the end of 2018, there are no longer any excess Vitale cards in circulation in relation to the number of insured persons. The CPAM also uses IT tools to detect irregularities. It will also strengthen its data exchange tools with other organisations. Health insurance also intends to better control sick leave. However, a parliamentary report underlinedt in 2019 that the number of medical advisors, who can check the validity of a judgment, has decreased by 22% in ten years.
Gabriel Attal did not specify how such a merger could apply. The announcement could well be a flash in the pan, while the director general of the CPAM estimated in a letter from April and revealed this Thursday that the “added value in the fight against fraud [d’une telle mesure] remains entirely to be demonstrated”, since “the amounts of fraud likely to be linked to fraudulent use of the Vitale card are minimal”. And it is another project, currently being deployed, which is currently concentrating the efforts of the CPAM: since 2019, a dematerialized version of the Vitale card has been gradually deployed throughout the territory. Another way to strengthen the security of this tool.