Organization of the Swiss model of primary care telemedicine: Is adoption by the French health system possible?

This article describes the Swiss model by analysing the determinants of its large presence and reports the hurdles to a transfer to France. The legal obligation for Swiss insurers to provide a minimal basket of care to their policyholders associated with flexibility allowed in the modalities of the delivery of care favoured this organizational innovation. At the same time, the financial burden of the health insurance premiums turned Swiss people away from the traditional model with total freedom of choice of the practitioner, in return for less freedom and lower premiums granted by gatekeeping models. In the telemedicine one, teleconsultation of first resort is mainly provided by the leading call centre platforms Medgate and Medi24. Several studies assessed the quality, the safety and the efficiency of this model. PC telemedicine found its place in the liberal Swiss health system, which remains expensive and unfair. Because of a socialized system, the generalisation of PC teleconsultation in France is possible if private insurers who launched this service, independent physicians and the French primary health insurance fund cooperate to preserve the solidarity between healthy and sick people. Faced with the concerns of healthcare professionals about the management of PC by private partners, a citizen debate seems timely.
Source: European Research in Telemedicine - Category: Information Technology Source Type: research