CPAM

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carol sheridan
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Post by carol sheridan »

Update - the lady from the English speaking help line rang me back this morning. She told me - wait for it - that as I had an E121 I didn't need to send them anything more. However, I won't take her advice as their seems to be as many opinons amongst the French officials as there are officials, so I will carry on assembling my life history and sending it off the Perpignan.
I have also been told that I must get my pharmacie to verify that my carte vitale has been re-registered - nobody has told me that before, but when I got my prescription last week they charged me only 35% so perhaps they did it automatically. I will go in this morning and ask them to check.
Onwards and upwards!
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blackduff
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Post by blackduff »

Carol
Normally there's a small machine which will update your carte vitale. In fact, you're supposed to put it through the machine and give it some info.

In Argeles the machine is inside of the Mairie~same at St.Genis.

It's worth a check and see what it says.

Blackduff
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john
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Post by john »

blackduff wrote:Carol
Normally there's a small machine which will update your carte vitale. In fact, you're supposed to put it through the machine and give it some info.

In Argeles the machine is inside of the Mairie~same at St.Genis.

It's worth a check and see what it says.

Blackduff
Didn't know about these machines in Mairies BD.Tell us more .I thought they were all in Pharmacies, and he updated it for you.
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PaddyFrog
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Post by PaddyFrog »

John!

There was a list of all the Bourne's within the department but it has disappeared!

All clinics and The Hospital have one, certain Town Halls and at Canet there is one just inside the tourist office.

Certain Chemists have them so do all the CPAM offices.

it only takes a couple of minutes to bring them up to date, every six months should be the norm.

You cannot miss them they are " Irish Coloured"


Hope this helps

Michael
Robert Ferrieux
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

CS, the "bornes de mise à jour" are available in practically all pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, townhalls, CPAM offices.
PF. How would you know? You're not an academic, are you?
RF.
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Post by carol sheridan »

I went to my local pharmacie in St. Cyprien Village and he put it in the machine for me and it came back 'not functioning' so I will just have to find the CPAM in Perpignan, find somewhere to park and , I suppose, wait in turn. I don't know why I have fallen bewteen the CPAM in Lot and the CPAM in Perpignan - the radiologist and the doctor and the pharmacie all took my carte vitale last week without question.
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

Carol,
Go to the CPAM office opposite the CAF near the roundabout as you get into Perpignan-Clos Banet from Canet. Easy to find, easy to park. Opas gave me this tip several months ago, it's a good one.
RF.
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Post by carol sheridan »

I telephoned CPAM at Perpignan and - hooray - there is a peripatetic CPAM which visits the mairie at St. Cyprien Plage on the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month. It is not possible to make an appointment at Perpignan - you just have to get their early, I suppose, and wait your turn.
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PaddyFrog
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Post by PaddyFrog »

Robert Ferrieux wrote:CS, the "bornes de mise à jour" are available in practically all pharmacies, clinics, hospitals, townhalls, CPAM offices.
PF. How would you know? You're not an academic, are you?
RF.
All Irish are Academics !!!!

That is very good Robert " Touché" Well done

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Michael
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opas
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Post by opas »

Robert Ferrieux wrote:
RF. :?
PS. Opas, when you need a bloodtest, don't go to the hospital. Go to a private laboratory at 8 a.m. without an appointment but with your Carte Vitale, and you'll have the results at 5 p.m. We go to Madame Daubin in Cabestany, next to the Crédit Agricole opposite the medical centre.
We were at the hospital for other reasons with our youngest. The bloodtests are all for research purposes.
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Roger O
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Post by Roger O »

opas wrote:The bloodtests are all for research purposes.
That sounds ominously like "NEXT" by Michael Crichton, which, by the way, I picked up in the Blagnac airport news shop on Saturday for 9 euros. Interesting when one looks at this link for published euro prices in France
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/c/mic ... n/next.htm
Shows that some airport bookshops are not the most expensive after all!
Outie

Post by Outie »

If there ever is one gene for going swss,then you should give blood just to see if it is genetic
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opas
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Post by opas »

Robert Ferrieux wrote:Carol,
Go to the CPAM office opposite the CAF near the roundabout as you get into Perpignan-Clos Banet from Canet. Easy to find, easy to park. Opas gave me this tip several months ago, it's a good one.
RF.
I think your memory is playing tricks on you RF.....I have double checked this with outie..........I did not even know there was a CPAM there, If I am thinking of the right area there is an Aldi sore but the only reason I have used that complex is for the ANPE....the only CPAM we use is either the main one at Rue des Remparts or the local offices at such as Thuir/prades/Ille -sur-tet.
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

No, my memory is not playing tricks on me.
You gave me the tip. I asked for advice as I wanted to accompany an English friend who couldn't speak French at all. You did mention that it was next to Aldi and indeed it was and still is.
RF.
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

Sorry, Opas, you were right. My memory which I thought was infallible was playing tricks on me. It was not you who gave me the tip but a gentleman, and although I have never met you, as far as I know, you don't look like a gentleman. I'd better watch out, could it possibly be the first symptom of Alzheimers creeping up on me? I console myself with the thought that if it was Alzheimers, I would be the last person to know.
RF :roll:
Last edited by Robert Ferrieux on Wed 20 Feb 2008 11:13, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by Robert Ferrieux »

:)
Last edited by Robert Ferrieux on Mon 25 Feb 2008 23:12, edited 1 time in total.
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opas
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Post by opas »

RF you had me worried there, I thought it was me who was loosing grip!
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Post by carol sheridan »

Latest - I took my carte vitale to the pharmaci and it is invalid. My last CPAM e-mailed me to say they had transferred my dossier to Perpignan at the end of December.
I have looked at the law and as my circumstances have not changed, other than change of address, I should have automatically been accepted by Perpignan - but what good will being in the right do me?
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sue and paul
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Post by sue and paul »

Sorry to hear about your difficulties Carol. Hope everything soon falls into place.

I am setting off in 5 minutes to CPAM Perpignan with our birth certs and marriage cert. This morning we received a new 'attestation', following our application to affiliate to the CMU since our E106 ran out on 5th January.

They have asked for our 'livret de famille' to complete our dossier, before our Cartes Vitales can be 'mises à jour'. I have just phoned and it has been confirmed that in our case they need to see our birth and marriage certs. I'm not entrusting these, or even copies of them, to La Poste, so I've got my crossword and off I go.

I'll report back
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Post by carol sheridan »

Good luck, Sue, let us know how you get on. I am waiting until the mobile officer comes to St.Cyprien Plage mairie on 7th March - I hope I have my long birth certificate by then, but it comes out from England by second class mail.
Since I am actually eligible to remain in the system, I am assuming that if I needed emergency treatment I could get a brown feuille and claim back my 65% or whatever.
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sue and paul
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Post by sue and paul »

I took my numbered ticket 364, and then set up camp with my crossword for a couple of hours, since they were just seeing no 301 !

We now have valid Carte Vitale and temporary paper Cartes Européennes till the plastic ones come.

So I think that's it. Except it'll all start again in November when I'm 60 and we go onto E121 funding. I'm expecting it to be a breeze !! Not.

I'm going to call Jean-Paul Sicre, at Mons et Giannotti(Generali), Argeles to ask him to start the ball rolling for our complémentaire, as soon as I know for certain that the new CV actually works at the pharmacie.

Sceptical....moi ?? :lol:
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Post by DavidB »

I haven't been following the forum for for some time, and have just seen this amazing thread, The following may be helpful checklist....

I discovered some years ago that the only way to get admin things sorted outat the CPAM is to actually visit the office at Rue des Remparts, and just sit it out and read a book. (I have to say that things have improved over the last 5 years....the service was even more abysmal previously.)
Also, the Perpignan CPAM is very inefficient compared to other offices such as that at Carcassonne, and communication between CPAM's is not good.

The other rule is to never, never, expect a return phone call from an office or service in France unless there's a chance they are making money out of the deal.

It's a good idea to compile a dossier of documents (and copies) which you take with you whenever you visit CPAM's and tax offices, etc. so you at least look as if you are prepared when your turn comes up, e.g. hand a copy of a document to the person you are seeing and you sometimes get a better response...even if it's the wrong document. (It's in the nature of things that "having a piece of paper" is power to fonctionnaires!).
It's also amazing how your stock of document copies mounts up...driving licences, passports, birth certificates, etc. which are also useful for other things too.

Ask them when you can expect the problem to be solved (it's always quinze jours of course), and ask if you can contact them if you don't hear anything, and who you should contact.

I know some of the things above seem flippant, but it does actually work.

Finally, a problem I came across myself over the last 3 months regarding the Carte Vitale.....
A spouse is sometimes classed as a dependent on the other person's CV, and therefore uses the same Social Security number. When the dependent receives his or her own CV (e.g. when the 121 kicks in), then a new Soc Sec number is operational.
This works fine as far as CPAM reimbursement is concerned, but....
...there does not seem to be an automatic link to any top-up insurance you may have, and you may not receive the remaining reimbursement.
This means that you should contact your top-up insurance company to verify that they have the current CV details.
This problem has taken me some months to realise and fix.
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Roger O
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Post by Roger O »

carol sheridan wrote:Latest - I took my carte vitale to the pharmaci and it is invalid. My last CPAM e-mailed me to say they had transferred my dossier to Perpignan at the end of December.
I have looked at the law and as my circumstances have not changed, other than change of address, I should have automatically been accepted by Perpignan - but what good will being in the right do me?
Carol, just to mention that I first did a change of address online (as I changed from 66 to 11).
https://www.changement-adresse.gouv.fr/ ... acceptJs=1
You have to tick the little acceptance box then start the procedings..
You will get to a page where you have all the organisations in France to which you may wish (or be obliged to) notify your change. Once completed (VERY carefully!) send it. You get back a number with your chosen password attached - NOTE IT CAREFULLY!!

So, after doing this and receiving notifications (some by email and some by post) that the specific "bodies" chosen by me during the process have been notified, I went to the "borne" in the Carcassonne prefecture (a couple of weeks later to ensure the "bodies" had time to update their internal records) and insterted my carte vitale (and Alizées who depends on me as minor) and both were automatically updated within seconds.

I don't think there is any way (may be wrong) to do the change of address on the "borne" itself - it seems to be an "update after the fact" system!

Hope this helps, Roger

PS, my next step is to get registered with a local doctor who will see the new address when he/she inserts the carte vitale in his/her PC. I have an appointment the Wednesday for that.

You should also (if not done) get athe address changed on your carte grise for the car - and on your driving license (if it is a recent French one issued with the original address on it. This may be via the police (as in Le Soler when we moved from Antibes) or at the Prefecture (as is the custom here in Carcassonne.

Lastly, apropos Carte Vitale.. ours were originally issued in Antibes (Nice 06). When we moved to Le Soler and now to Palaja, the CPAM number was not changed and the notification of receipt of change of address I received was from Nice - i.e. the original issuing office for Alpes Maritimes. This may have something to do with your 'invalid' response at the borne if pre-advice of address change was not notified?
carol sheridan
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Post by carol sheridan »

Thank you , Roger, but I am in postal correspondence with the CPAM at Perpignan so they are obviously aware of my change of address!
I did change everything necessary when I moved - carte grise, etc. I have now moved four times in France, each time to a different department, so I have a check list of people to inform. I have never had any problems before - as I said, I think the recent confusion over early retirees has just thrown them so they don't know what they are doing. Previously, on changing departments I was just given an 'ayant des droits' form from my old department and sent it on to the CPAM in the new department. I have never had a change of social security number.
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Post by blackduff »

Carol
Here's a small story about another British citizen. Does this sound a lot about the French system too.

Don't you wish that you had written this?


Subject: Passport Application


Dear Minister,
I'm in the process of renewing my passport but I am a total loss to understand or believe the hoops I am being asked to jump through.

How is it that Bert Smith of T.V. Rentals Basingstoke has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a satellite dish from them back in 1994, and yet, the Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date?

How come that nice West African immigrant chappy who comes round every Thursday night with his DVD rentals van can tell me every film or video I have had out since he started his business up eleven years ago, yet you still want me to remind you of my last three jobs, two of which were with contractors working for the government?

How come the T.V. detector van can tell if my T.V. is on, what channel I am watching and whether I have paid my licence or not, and yet if I win the government run lottery they have no idea I have won or where I am and will keep the bloody money to themselves if I fail to claim in good time.
Do you people do this by hand?

You have my birth date on numerous files you hold on me, including the one with all the income tax forms I've filed for the past 30-odd years. It's on my health insurance card, my driver's licence, on the last four passports I've had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I've had to fill out before being allowed off the planes and boats over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done every ten years and the electoral registration forms I have to complete, by law, every time our lords and masters are up for re-election.

Would somebody please take note, once and for all, I was born in Maidenhead on the 4th of March 1957, my mother's name is Mary, her maiden name was Reynolds, my father's name is Robert, and I'd be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and the day I die!

I apologise Minister. I'm obviously not myself this morning. But between you and me, I have simply had enough! You mail the application to my house, then you ask me for my address.. What is going on? Do you have a gang of Neanderthals working there? Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don't want to activate the Fifth Reich for God's sake! I just want to go and park my weary ass on a sunny, sandy beach for a couple of week's well-earned rest away from all this crap.

Well, I have to go now, because I have to go to back to Salisbury and get another copy of my birth certificate because you lost the last one. AND to the tune of 60 quid! What a racket THAT is!! Would it be so complicated to have all the services in the same spot to assist in the issuance of a new passport the same day? But nooooo, that'd be too damn easy and maybe make sense. You'd rather have us running all over the place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some tosser to confirm that it's really me on the goddamn picture - you know... the one where we're not allowed to smile in in case we look as if we are enjoying the process!
Hey, you know why we can't smile? 'Cause we're totally jacked off!

I served in the armed forces for more than 25 years including over ten years at the Ministry of Defence in London. I have had security clearances which allowed me to sit in the Cabinet Office, five seats away from the Prime Minister while he was being briefed on the first Gulf War and I have been doing volunteer work for the British Red Cross ever since I left the Services. However, I have to get someone "important" to verify who I am -- you know, someone like my doctor...
who, before he got his medical degree 6 months ago WAS LIVING IN PAKISTAN....

Yours sincerely,
An Irate British Citizen.


A email which arrived from a British citizen.

Blackduff
carol sheridan
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Post by carol sheridan »

Yes, Blackduff, I certainly know the feelings!
I went to the visiting CPAM at the Medecin du Travail in St. Cyprien Plage on 7th March, taking ALL my papers. The woman went through them with me and agreed that all was in order and took them away. Guess what? One week later, back they came, saying I needed to fill in the names of all my pension providers. I had taken letters regarding my three UK government pensions with me and the woman had looked at them. Why the heck could she not have pointed out the box where I had to fill them in?
I duly went back last Friday and again showed her everything and asked her to assure me that it was all in order. Again, she agreed it was, so naturally I now await another letter telling me what is missing.
In the meantime, although my new doctor and radiologist both accepted my carte vitale from Lot, the CPAM there tells me that since I had moved house in November and they had transferred my dossier to Perpignan at the end of December, they won't reimburse me. Now I have written to CPSM du PO enclosing the dated prescription and the dated radiologist's report, asking for reimbursement. I did not get a feuille because they both accepted my carte vitale, which presumably was still valid or their machine would not have accepted it.
I had to get another lot of medication this week, at a cost of 60 euros, but I did get a brown feuille which I have sent to Perpignan.
I did get the visiting woman to sign a photocopy of my long birth certificate so I can keep the original to get a new passport from Paris. I still wonder what possible use they can make of it, since I have not been known by my single name since 1959, and now use the name I chose by deed poll in 1980.
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Post by carol sheridan »

Eureka! Well, almost. I have now received an 'attestation' which enabled me to get a feuille from my doctor and pharmacist which I have sent off to Perpignan. I went back to the radiologist, too, and was given a feuille for the amount I paid in January.
They obviously have all the information they need to confirm my eligibility, but apparently the actual production of the plastic Carte Vitale takes three months.
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Roger O
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Post by Roger O »

carol sheridan wrote:Eureka! apparently the actual production of the plastic Carte Vitale takes three months.
Did they ask you for a photo? in which case you'll get one of the new type cards... they're still practising with those!!
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Post by carol sheridan »

Not so far, Roger. I will hold myself in readiness.
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