The health insurance card on smartphones, progressively tested and rolled out since 2023, is now available to all insured individuals in mainland France and its overseas territories. Here's how it works, in five questions.
– What is the purpose of the health insurance card on a smartphone?
As a “complement” to the physical card, the digital Vitale card is “usable in the same situations as the physical Vitale card with healthcare professionals, during a medical consultation, for the dispensing of medication at the pharmacy,” explains the Health Insurance.
Having your health insurance card on your smartphone will allow you to limit the consequences of forgetting or losing it, but also to "follow your health expenses live" since summaries of the latest healthcare bills can be viewed in the application.
Eventually, the Carte Vitale on your smartphone will be able to integrate your supplemental health insurance and allow for direct billing to your insurer. It will also allow you to connect to Mon Espace Santé, your digital health record.
– How do I activate it? –
Installing the Carte Vitale application on your phone is done entirely online, but it requires a security procedure so that the Health Insurance can verify that you are indeed who you claim to be.
If you have already installed the France Identité app (linked to the new identity card) on your smartphone, you can use it to prove your identity and activate the Carte Vitale app.
If you do not have a France Identité card, the Carte Vitale app will ask you to record a video of an identity document (ID card, passport, residence permit) and your face before activation. This facial recognition process will be "validated by a human operator," according to the French National Health Insurance.
During this installation process, you will need to have your Social Security number with you.
– How do I use the application?
To use the application at a healthcare professional's office, you will need to unlock it with a secret code set during activation (or your fingerprint, or facial recognition if your smartphone allows it).
You then present your smartphone to the healthcare professional who, with a suitable reader – QR code or NFC (contactless technology) – will have access to all the necessary information.
– Should I keep my physical health insurance card? –
Yes, you must keep your physical health insurance card. The app is only a "supplement" to the health insurance card.
Moreover, not all healthcare professionals yet have compatible readers and software, although the equipment is progressing rapidly: approximately 5,000 additional healthcare professionals are billing with the application each month, according to the Health Insurance.
In regions where the Carte Vitale app is already fully deployed, 801 pharmacists have already billed using this system. Across the country, the ratio is currently two-thirds.
– What about security?
According to the Health Insurance, the application has a high level of security and "does not contain medical information".
It only contains "data related to reimbursements" (identities of the insured and beneficiaries, social security number, health insurance scheme and affiliated organization, summaries of invoices for care).
The government and the health insurance system hope that the application will allow them to "take another step in the fight against social fraud" and to "protect our health system".
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