Telemedicine

Teleconsultations: the new rules on sick leave

Publié le 12 mars 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

The prescription of work stoppages during teleconsultations is subject to new rules. Provisions in the 2025 Social Security Financing Act to combat fraud in sick leave. Service-Public.fr informs you.

A doctor making a teleconsultation may not prescribe a work stoppage for a period longer than 3 days, or extend an ongoing work stoppage if this results in its total duration being increased to more than 3 days.

There are two exceptions to this rule:

  • when the work stoppage is prescribed or renewed by the employee’s treating physician (or the employee’s midwife referrer);
  • if the employee is unable to consult a health-care professional to obtain an extension of the work stoppage in person.

The 2025 Social Security Financing Law establishes two other prohibitions:

  • in respect of health professionals working principally abroad : these practitioners can no longer prescribe or renew a work stoppage during a telemedicine procedure, regardless of the duration of the stoppage;
  • the establishment of any platform that would aim to “provide primarily, explicitly or implicitly, telemedicine prescribing or renewing a work stoppage ”.

To learn more about the rules for telemedicine, you can consult the Service-Public.fr : Telehealth: telemedicine (teleconsultation, telemonitoring...)