Rapid Covid screening tests soon to be delisted

© Sameer Al-DOUMY/AFP/Archives

Nearly two years after the WHO lifted the global state of emergency, the French government on Friday called off the reimbursement of rapid Covid tests in pharmacies, an announcement that poses a problem for pharmacists. 

In a message sent to AFP, the Directorate General of Health (DGS) announced that it plans to no longer reimburse rapid Covid-19 screening tests carried out in pharmacies, once the winter epidemics have passed. 

“Pharmacists will be able to continue to carry out Trod (rapid diagnostic orientation tests, Editor's note) Covid in pharmacies, as well as provide self-tests, at the request of patients, but the latter will no longer be covered by Health Insurance”, indicates this entity of the Ministry of Health. 

On the other hand, rapid tests which verify the bacterial or viral nature of tonsillitis, carried out in pharmacies “have been covered since June 2024 and will remain so”, adds the DGS. 

These changes “will only come into effect after the epidemic period we are currently in”, which is mainly experiencing a high circulation of influenza, specifies the DGS. 

According to the Uspo, Covid antigen tests brought in 75 million in margins for pharmacists in 2024.  

As a reminder, the surge in Covid tests in December 2021 cost social security more than a billion euros, a windfall for the entire industry, while there are controversies over the reliability of these self-tests. These tests can generate one false negative in three, mutations of the virus having an impact on the reliability of the tests and finally, the latter, if misused, can create dangerous lesions, as the Academy of Medicine had warned. 

 

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