Moroccan Gynecologists Protest Insurance Changes, Impacting Maternity Care Costs

In an effort to lower what it considers an abnormally high rate, CNOPS had announced that from May 1st, unjustified cesarean sections will be reimbursed on the basis of the flat-rate for vaginal delivery. This decision was not to the liking of gynecologists, especially those affiliated with the AGP, who have decided to charge all patients whose files are covered by the organization.

In a letter addressed to the director of the National Health Insurance Fund (ANAM) and the Ministry of Health, health professionals consider that "the Director General of CNOPS is taking on a purely medical, scientific role and one that falls exclusively within the remit of duly qualified specialists," before adding "that he can talk about ’convenience cesarean sections’ is pure interference in the competence of physicians and an insult to their scientific integrity."

The high expenditures recorded by the fund between 2006 and 2017 motivated CNOPS’s decision to make the reimbursement of the cesarean section conditional on a justifying medical report. Otherwise, what CNOPS considers legitimate, private gynecologists describe as a violation of the medical code of ethics, interference in the course of action, and an attack on their professional integrity.