[A medical reduced practice reimbursed by the sickness insurance is not synonymous with medical plethora in the French community of Belgium].
OBJECTIVE
To determine if a reduced medical practice reimbursed by the sickness insurance is a proof of medical plethora. Enquiry design : Descriptive observation transverse design.


METHODS
The French-speaking general practitioners and specialists questioned in 2003 about their reduced activity volume recorded in 2000 by the National Institute of the Sickness - Disability insurance (INAMI) on the French Community territory.


METHODS
All French-speaking general practitioners and specialists, not reaching the accreditation activity level in 2000, were selected starting from databank of the INAMI. A questionnaire was transmitted to the physicians by mailing via the INAMI services. The answer rate was 44,0 % for the specialists and 40,5 % for the general practitioners.


RESULTS
In 2000, 47,7 % of the French-speaking general practitioners and 23,3 % of the French-speaking specialists did not reach the activity level given the right to be accredited by the INAMI. After the enquiry, only 5,5 % of the general practitioners and 5,7 % of the specialists had really a reduced activity. It was explained for a great part by the choice of career guidance out of the INAMI system and under-declaration of foreign working and retirement.


CONCLUSIONS
The data bases of the INAMI are the only sources of individual medical activity recording. Their uses, in term of medical manpower planning, must be done with corrective factors issued from this study. The accreditation activity level is a good indicator to underline the activity out of the sickness insurance sector.
Benahmed
N
N
Département d'Economie de la Santé, Ecole de Santé Publique, U.L.B., Bruxelles.
De Wever
A
A
D000068:Accreditation; D001530:Belgium; D002321:Career Choice; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008511:Medicine; D010821:Physicians, Family; D012051:Reimbursement Mechanisms; D013038:Specialization; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires