2024-03-09 17:37:00
Physiotherapists are mobilized this Saturday with a clear objective: to have the new INAMI agreement rejected, which notably sets their prices deemed too low.
“Currently, it is 30 euros gross. The latest studies carried out by the Belgian physiotherapist union, Axxon, show that we should earn 40 euros gross per session to be able to cover our rental costs, charges, equipment or training throughout the year“, explains François, a Brussels physiotherapist we met.
To achieve their goals, many choose to break the rules, before midnight. “If 40% +1 of all physiotherapists withdraw from the agreement on the day of the official count (this evening midnight), the agreement is rejected and no reimbursement discrimination applies to patients“, practitioners explain to us, en masse, via the orange Alert us button.
This “discrimination” mentioned concerns the fact that patients do not benefit from the same level of reimbursement, depending on whether they consult an approved physiotherapist or not. However, the difference in reimbursement is maintained in this new agreement.
Currently, around 27,000 physiotherapists are approved in Belgium by the INAMI (during the last agreement, 33% of physiotherapists were exempt from the agreement). The protesting physiotherapists hope that they will be sufficiently unconventional to be able to tip the scales.
Their movement was, however, apparently complicated by the fact that the INAMI site was, it seems, “under maintenance” for part of the day yesterday and today. “This looks like a desire to “break” the current dynamic“, say these physiotherapists. We have not been able to verify the veracity of this information.
The office of Minister of Health Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit), for its part, believes that “significant budgetary efforts” have just been made (with this new agreement) to upgrade the profession. “The budget devoted to reimbursing physiotherapists increased from 847 million in 2019 to 1.26 billion in 2024. This is an increase of 411 million euros, or +49% (index included), in one legislature.
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François, a 28-year-old physiotherapist, wants his job to be better paid: “We should have 40 euros gross per session”
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