A new reimbursement for remote medical consultations will be introduced in August 2022 in Belgium

On June 17, 2022, INAMI announced the launch of a new reimbursement framework for remote medical consultations from August 01, 2022. The reimbursement for remote consultations was first introduced during the COVID-19 crisis via "teleconsultation" codes, which will now be terminated and replaced by other Nomenclature codes for telephone and video consultations. Physicians will receive a higher fee for video consultations.

The number of remote consultations reimbursed will not be limited in this new framework. However, INAMI and its partners assume that these remote consultations can only be a complement to traditional consultations with personal contact and a physical examination.

The following conditions should be met to receive reimbursement:

• This must be a consultation with a doctor who consulted this patient before, with a specialist to whom another doctor has referred the patient, or with general practice on-call;
• Remote consultation is requested from the patient and agreed upon by the doctor;
• The doctor must have access to the patient's file during the consultation;
• The platform used for a video consultation must be secure and comply with good practices in this area. The exchanges will, for example, be encrypted "end-to-end" and never recorded on the platform.

The discussion about integrating telecare into the Nomenclature for other health care professions is also continuing.

See the full details in French and Dutch here

This news is just one of about 300 market access news collected by our team in the subscription services "HTA Alerts" and "Reimbursement Alerts" every two weeks from more than 80 organizations. Access our paid subscription services to stay on top of all developments specifically for your products in Europe (reimbursement news) and globally (HTA news). First EU issues of both newsletters are available for download free-of-charge.

Not ready for a subscription service? Subscribe to our free-of-charge newsletter delivered every second week to get updates about key reimbursement developments in Europe (10-12 news every two weeks).