Belgian public health insurance RIZIV/Inami has approved the reimbursement for teleconsultations by doctors as a way to tackle the coronavirus and flatten the curve.
The measure applies to teleconsultations as from Saturday 14 March, the beginning of the ‘social lockdown’ rules in the heart of Europe.
Only a few days before, Belgian Medical order had published an announcement stating ‘teleconsultations can now be used by doctors in times of coronacrisis’.
With this, Belgium is in line with many other countries worldwide which all use telehealth to a growing extent to fight the COVID19-pandemic.
This is how teleconsultations are arranged in Belgium now:
doctors are paid 20 euro for each teleconsultation to
- do triage and advice people with possible COVID19-contamination
- deliver continuous care to people, for example, elderly and chronicle patients
The service is free for patients. If patients need a sick note, doctors can send it to them. Prescriptions are sent to the patient’s pharmacist immediately, via the so-called e-recipe service.
The government also says ‘RIZIV is preparing other measures for other health professionals too’. So it seems like digital health will finally expand in Belgium…
Implementing telehealth services
Many health professionals, hospitals and GP’s are now starting to implement telehealth-services. And the Belgian and European psychologist federation have also called their members to switch to online consultations now.
AXA health insurances, the first to offer (free) teleconsultations on a large scale in Belgium, will soon no longer be the only one ….
All digital health-help to #flattenthecurve is welcome!
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