With entry into force on January 1, 2023, a decree of the Ministry of Health regulates the deployment of the digital vital card application. In particular, the decree sets the calendar for its deployment throughout the territory, the management of personal data and the operation of the application.
In experimentation in various departments since 2019, including the Rhône, Paris, Seine-Maritime or even the North, the digital version of the vital card will be progressive to be fully implemented by 2026 and will take the form of a mobile application available on Android. and iOS.
It has a mobile app. To have a digital vital card, you must download the ApCV application and carry out a secure procedure through facial recognition. Once the operation has been carried out and the link with the social security number has been established, the digital vital card will appear in the application.
The application will contain a personal space so that the patient can find the data of his vital card. You will have two possibilities to present your new vital card to a health professional: a QR code available from the application or a scan of the digital card in the same way as a contactless payment.
The application can also allow a third party to use this digital vital card when the insured cannot travel.
The application will have all the information already available on a classic vital card. The identification data of the holder with the registration number in the national identification directory, a photograph, a postal or electronic address of the holder, the technical data for an electronic signature. On the security side, the application plans to protect access to card information and a system to authenticate the card and identify its holder.
The mobile application, in its initial version, does not plan to include biometric data, except for the photo, as is already the case with current vital cards. At the moment, there is no question of adding fingerprints in the application on the model of passports. However, the senators advocate a biometric model to prevent fraud, which they consider considerable.
The decree published in the Official Gazette on January 1, 2023 aims to supervise the deployment of this new system. Envisioned under Agnès Buzyn, former Health Minister, as part of the government’s health and digital roadmap, the system’s rollout has been slowed by the health crisis. The current Minister of Health, François Braun, then took the reins and relaunched the expansion of the system throughout the territory.
The application is already available in the departments that have been experimenting with the device since 2019: Rhône, Saône-et-Loire, Seine-Maritime, Bas-Rhin, Nord, Gironde, Hérault, Loire-Atlantic, Sarthe, Puy-de-Dôme , Maritime Alps and Paris.
According to Health Insurance, the application must be “generalized in 2023 throughout the territory”, but this period has been extended until 2026 by the government to guarantee full availability. Therefore, in principle, everyone will have access to this new software in 2026. However, various provisions of the decree come into force on various dates, starting on January 1, 2023, which could trigger faster availability of the application.
For its part, the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (Cnil) regrets this deployment, however, while the experiment has not ended.
And this question affects one in ten people in France. The digital vital card will not be mandatory at all. It is, for the moment, an alternative to the physical card. However, the application “intends to become the identification and authentication tool for patients in the health system,” estimated the Ministry of Health in 2019.
Source: BFM TV
