French recognition of osteopathy
I HAVE been told I cannot be reimbursed for osteopathy. Is it not officially recognised? J.F
You cannot be reimbursed under the state scheme, even though it is one of the four officially recognised alternative therapies (since 2002).
Osteopaths should be registered with the Agence Régionale de la Santé and some are also doctors, nurses, midwives or physiotherapists.
If it was offered, for example, as a complementary therapy during a doctor’s consultation, you could be reimbursed for the consultation but not for the osteopathy itself.
One professional body for the sector, FFO, says some physiotherapists have been found to be passing off osteopathic treatments under the guise of physiotherapy but there have been fines.
About a third of private top-up mutuelles reimburse osteopathy to some degree (a list of policies that do so can be found at: www.osteopathie.org/mutuelles.html)
A new decree has been passed regulating the content and length of training, which should now be five years. It comes into play for training starting this September and follows one on criteria to be met by the bodies offering the training.
There is no official regulator but osteopaths may be members of bodies including the Registre des Ostéopathes de France or Syndicat Français des Ostéopathes, which have their own membership criteria.
As of this year osteopaths must by law also have professional insurance.
