Carte Vitale, do I have to renew it?

Hi Everyone,



I have had a Carte Vitale for the last 2 years, its the new card with your picture on but what I am not sure about is do I have to renew it at any time, or do I need to activate it each year and how do I do that. I have not yet used it so I am not sure what to do??



Thanks



Brian

Ameli is l'insurance maladie on line, CPAM is your local Caisse, SECU is the general common usage for CPAM.

Aha. This may account for the excessive use of medicines in France- they are an excuse to keep your Carte up to date and keep the doctors employed, and the fonctionnaires especially. I'm certainly doing my bit!

Karen, I would recommend signing on to ameli.fr. It isn't restricted to letting you keep track of your refunds. There's a huge number of things you can do on the site. For a start, you can print out the attestation. No need to trek down to the CPAM office to get it.

Me too. The online service for RSI is RAM (www.ramgamex.fr) just in case anybody does not know.

Thanks Karen for all the information!

Hi Annette,

Sorry for the confusion. By SECU I mean the CPAM or official offices of the Maladie/Securité Sociale. As far as I know Ameli is their online service that allows you to follow your reimbursements without all the paper. I don't use it, but it might be worth checking if you can also check your organism number and dr registration through that website as well.

Sorry for the wordy reply, but I thought I should be thurough :

I've had a "new" card for several years and visit doctors and pharmacists on a regular basis. Please note that even if a doctor or pharmacist is equipped with a computer and system to read the card, this does not neccessarily updated the card for everything that might need updating.This can be quite troublesome If you have a medical emergency, or have to see a different dr during your doc's holidays. You may encounter trouble with your reimbursements.

I would recommend the following : Print up an "Attestation de droits" at the Secu at least once a year. When you use one of the free access machines to do this, it will automatically update your card, AND the attestation will tell you what your current status is.

3 very important bits of information appear on that paper : 1)the name of the other family members covered, 2) your "organisme de rattachement" (office you depend on), and 3) whether or not you have a "medecin traitant".

1) I'm assuming that if you have children they appear here. There might be spelling errors or an error in their social security number that you wouldn't pick up otherwise. And trust me, this might cause probs later on!

2) Believe it or not, your organisme de rattachement can change without your knowledge! Mine changed a couple years after I moved to a different section of town and I was never informed. If you ever have a work-related accident, go on sick-leave, maternity leave, or request a reimbursement, you are supposed to fill out papers that ask for the organisme de rattachement's number, and you often have to send the letter to that "organisme de rattachement" which means the address changes if the number changes! If you see a change in that number from one year to another, ask for the full address at the help desk, otherwise your mail may never get to the right place and you'll be left with a financial and administrative nightmare. Likewise, make sure you fill in the right number, otherwise they might use it as grounds not to reimburse or they'll send the paper back to you saying there is an error.

3) The French Social Security now requires that each person choose a reference doctor. Your choice of a personal or family doc must be officially registered with the SECU. This can be a "generaliste" or a specialist such as a cardiologist. In any case, if your Attestation de Droits does not say "a déclaré un médecin traitant" under your name, part of your reimbursements will be held back under the pretexte you have not registered a doc. You and the chosen doctor needs to fill-in a "declaration" sheet (if they don't have one, you can print one up from the SECU machines or ask for one at the desk). You then need to send this to your "organisme de rattachement". Check every once in a while until it appears as registered/déclaré. PLEASE NOTE - if you change docs, it is important to check at the SECU office what the name of the declared doc is. I had to make 5 trips back and forth with newly signed declarations before the SECU took the change into account, and each time I consulted the "New" one, they held back a few euros on my reimbursements.

Remember, it's always better to be safe then sorry!

Although you have to renew it once a year this automatically happens every time you use it either at Docs or chemist. However it’s only a double check they have it updated all of the time but its easier than arriving at docs with wrong info…

Thank you everyone for your helpful answers!!

Hi Annette,

I am glad my question about updating my Carte Vitale as helped you and myself and like you I did not know I had to do that. Thank you everyone for your helpful answers!!

when you collect your prescription the chemist will insert the card and it will then update - if the card isn't used at the chemist, doctor or dentist etc on a regular basis through normal use you need to find a machine either in most chemists, Assedic offices, hospitals foyers & CPAM offices etc etc

There are no regional differences as far as i'm aware tho' some areas are quicker implementing the introduction of thee'new' Carte Vitale with the photo

I have lived in France since 1999 and have never been required to update my Carte Vitale, save when I moved from the Charente to the Gironde. In general and in my experience the French admin systems are so good that if you are required to do anything you will be told in enough time to take any action required.

There appears to be a difference of opinion about how often to update your card. I was told annually when I first received it (a year ago), and the chemist just did mine automatically for me. I collect a prescription every month so she would have told me if it required updating more often.

Why do others update more often - is there perhaps a regional difference?

Brian - take your card to the local pharmacy ans ask the pharmacist " Voulez vous mettre Ma Carte Vilale dans le mis a jour SVP " They will then put your card into their machine and update it. I usually do this every six months.

easier if you have photocard - but if old type get pharmacyor other to do it for you - lot more numbers etc to input on machine - if photo type just one button to press and it updates

Don't worry about changing your card for one with a photo - la caisse assurance maladie is progressively changing over to the new cards with pics and other "improved" functions - so unless you have to get another one due to loss or damage, then you must wait until contacted by them to change/update.

Thus,to answer simply - YES, your card will still work, no worries. BUT it must be updated yearly to benefit fully, although this is not mandatory. I know - I ignored this "rule" for some time, and only updated after moving or the birth of a child and never had any problem.

Brian, most pharmacies can do this procedure for you. If not, head over to the assurance maladie office - they usually have a card machine in the waiting room, hopefully not "hors-service"!

Just take it to the phamacy, they will update it or tell you where to re-new your vitale card. So don't worry, but remember to up date in the machine at the phamacy every 3 months. I have had my card for 26years.

Hi, just tke your card to the phamacy, normally there is a machine there and the assistant will help you to update. I do mine every three months. Doctor, Dentist Option or anything dealing with medicial problems will show up on their computors whether your card has been updated, so don't worry.