The Federation of Addictions warned, on Tuesday, July 29, on “numerous treatment breaks” in patients followed in addictology, since the obligation to present its vital card in pharmacies and affirms “a clear and systematic derogatory” for these precarious patients.
“For several weeks, members of the Federation of Addictions (doctors, caregivers, social workers …) report a multiplication of treatment ruptures: users can no longer obtain their drugs in pharmacy, due to lack of a vital card,” says the main network of associations and addicts in France.
For these users in great difficulty, often followed in Csapa (Centers of Attention, Support and Prevention in Addiction) or by general professionals, the Federation recalls in its press release that “the loss or absence of a vital card is frequent and the steps to obtain a new one are complex and long.”
An “inapplicable for users in great difficulty”
“When conditioning access to vital card treatments, government and health insurance run the risk of causing relapses, hospitalizations, even overdose,” the organization warns.
In mid -June, Health Insurance has announced that the presentation of the vital card would become mandatory to benefit from the payment of third parties in pharmacies during the issuance of certain “risk” medications, including narcotics such as methadone and methylphenidate, as well as for particularly expensive medications.
In other words, it will be necessary to provide the physical or dematerialized card during each visit to the pharmacy so as not to advance costs.
The purpose of this system is to “limit fraud” and “deviations of certain sensitive drugs” but also “to improve the traceability of the care route,” health insurance explained.
This measure is “inapplicable for users in great difficulty” and returns “to exclude the most vulnerable people from attention,” said the Addiction Federation.
Source: BFM TV
