When complementary health insurance organisations invest in occupational health prevention

Résumé En

Although the arrival of complementary health insurance organisations (OCAMs) on the prevention consultancy market is marginal and these services are not central to the choice of contracts, a study of these offers makes it possible to observe the changes under way in the field of occupational health prevention. As they are not generally specialists in these issues, the prevention officers within OCAMs act as middlemen, delegating the actual prevention actions to other professionals. Nevertheless, through the architecture of the offers proposed, they contribute to defining the solutions provided in the field of occupational health and thus enter into competition with the traditional acters in occupational health. The “tailor-made” offers of the OCAMs make it possible to harmonise the presentation of various tools and services relating to social action, prevention and advice. The prevention promoted is marked by a public health approach which is based on the implementation of behavioural policies, rather than on effective action on the organisation of work and occupational exposures which cause illness and accidents. The OCAMs’ approach, which aims to win the loyalty of client companies, is favourable to employers in that it helps shift responsibility for risk exposure onto employees. These orientations, which are also endorsed by the law of 2 August 2021 to strengthen occupational health prevention, which seeks to “decompartmentalise public health and occupational health”, lead to a change in the conception of occupational health.