The law n°2022-1616 of 23 December 2022, published in the French Official Journal on 24 December 2022 (Social Security Financing Law for 2023, LFSS) carries the integration of a new regime applicable to teleconsultation companies, facilitating the reimbursement by the French social security regime of teleconsultation acts, under certain conditions, in order to improve access to health care in France.

This article of the Social Security Financing Law for 2023 has also been adopted through the so-called French constitutional procedure of Article 49.3, used by the government. Thus, the letter of Article 53 of the Law reproduces almost in its entirety the terms of Article 28 provided in the initial bill of law. Several amendments had been submitted during the legislative process, in order to provide additional conditions for the reimbursement of teleconsultation acts proposed by teleconsultation companies. Such amendments would have had the effect of restricting the scope and purposes of the amendments of the regime applicable to teleconsultation companies carried out by the French government. However, these restrictions were ultimately excluded from the final law.

Accordingly, the only significant difference between the text initially filed before the French National Assembly and the final text of the adopted Law is that the supervision of:

• the action plan for teleconsultation companies, detailing the measures adopted to ensure compliance with the obligations applicable to such companies to receive the accreditation of Article 53, and
• the annual reports, describing the companies’ activities and in particular the follow-up of the measures provided for in the action plan,

is entrusted to the French national board of physicians (conseil national de l'ordre des médecins), instead of the French departmental boards of physicians (conseils départementaux de l'ordre des médecins), which were initially referred to in the bill.

This evolution for teleconsultation companies is part of the current trend of development of telemedicine acts, and of the respective creation of the legal and regulatory framework in France for this form of medical practice. For instance, tele-monitoring activities has also been the subject of recent developments, with the adoption on 30 December 2022 of two decrees n°2022-1767 and n°2022-1769 in relation to the new health care coverage for those activities.

Next steps

Implementing regulations have yet to be adopted, and will mark the final contours of this new approval regime for teleconsultation companies.

You can find more details on the conditions applicable to this approval system in our previous article, which you can consult here: Teleconsultations in France: a (r)evolution coming for commercial companies? - Hogan Lovells Engage.