Opening a clinic in Paris

How to open a medical practice in Paris

To open a medical practice in Paris, register with the conseil départemental de l'Ordre des médecins, take out professional liability insurance, and register with the Assurance Maladie and URSSAF, with ARS Île-de-France authorisation only for the care activities and heavy equipment the law lists. From the first appointment, wai runs booking, signed notes, consent, messaging and payments on one record, with every action kept on the record under a named account.

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Updated 16 October 2026. Every rule is checked against the official source and cited below.

A man in a pale suit stands at a tall window above the rooftops of Paris at sunset

Regulator

Ordre des médecins, with the ARS Île-de-France for authorised activities

Health data

HDS-certified hosting

Insurance

Professional liability, required

Language

French

Six steps to an open clinic in Paris

Who do you register with to open a medical practice in Paris, and in what order?Step 01
What do the premises and systems of a Paris practice need?Step 02
What insurance does a doctor in Paris need?Step 03
What registrations does each doctor joining a Paris practice need?Step 04
What has to be in place before the first Paris patient?Step 05
What matters in a Paris practice's first 90 days?Step 06

How to open a clinic in Paris, step by step

From the licence to the first 90 days, in the order a founder meets each step.

01Licensing and the regulator

Who do you register with to open a medical practice in Paris, and in what order?

Doctors register with the conseil départemental de l'Ordre des médecins where they will practise, and receive a certificate with their RPPS number. The ARS authorises only the care activities and heavy equipment the Code de la santé publique lists.¹²

Contact the conseil départemental of the Ordre for your place of practice, gather the listed documents and disclose your contracts, such as association, SCM or SEL statutes.¹
Check whether the ARS applies. Its prior authorisation covers the care activities and heavy equipment defined in articles R6122-25 and R6122-26, and lasts 7 years from the declaration of commissioning.²
Register with the Assurance Maladie so your liberal practice is recorded.¹
Declare the activity to URSSAF within 8 days of starting.¹

02Premises and fit-out

What do the premises and systems of a Paris practice need?

Insurance covering the premises, and a certified host for any health data a provider keeps on your behalf.¹³

Insure the premises. The Ordre names an obligation of insurance covering liability for the premises.¹
Use an HDS-certified host for patient data. Anyone hosting personal health data on behalf of those who collect it must be certified, under article L1111-8 of the Code de la santé publique.³
Confirm the host's certificate is current. HDS certificates last three years, with a surveillance audit every year.³

03Indemnity and insurance

What insurance does a doctor in Paris need?

Professional liability insurance. The Ordre says a liberal health professional is required to take out responsabilité civile professionnelle cover, citing article L1142-2 of the Code de la santé publique.¹

Take out professional liability cover before the first patient.¹
Add the separate insurance for the premises' liability.¹
Each liberal doctor carries the obligation personally, so check the cover of every doctor practising with you.¹

Clinic AI in Paris

04Hiring and credentialing

What registrations does each doctor joining a Paris practice need?

Each doctor is registered with the Ordre, and membership of the CARMF pension fund is mandatory for every registered doctor in liberal practice, even part time.¹

Ask each doctor for their Ordre registration certificate, which shows their RPPS number and place of practice.¹
Confirm their CARMF membership within a month of starting.¹
Confirm each liberal doctor holds their own professional liability insurance.¹

Clinic AI staff training

05Patient-facing setup

What has to be in place before the first Paris patient?

Consent to any recording, and a clinician supervising every AI output. Recording private words without consent is an offence under Article 226-1 of the Code pénal.⁴

Tell patients a consultation is recorded and record their consent before the scribe listens.⁴
Have the clinician check every generated note, the supervised and reasoned use HAS asks for.⁵
Plan for languages. 20.1% of Paris residents were immigrants in 2020 to 2021, about twice the national share.⁶
Meet patients where they write. 87% of messaging app users in France use WhatsApp.⁷

06The first 90 days

What matters in a Paris practice's first 90 days?

The registrations that follow the opening have deadlines, from 8 days for URSSAF to a month for the CARMF.¹

Declare to URSSAF within 8 days of starting the activity.¹
Join the CARMF within a month of starting.¹
Contact the CAF for your place of practice.¹
If you hold an ARS authorisation, diary its 7 year term from the declaration of commissioning.²

A young woman and an older woman with a hearing aid talk, smiling, in cream armchairs by a tall window

How wai runs a Paris clinic from day one

From the first appointment, a Paris practice runs its diary, notes, payments and patient conversations on one record, in French and in the patient's own language.

01
Appointments

Patients request appointments in French or English from your own website at any hour, with a reminder before every visit and cancelled slots offered to the waitlist.
Online booking from your own website, every clinician's diary read from their calendar, reminders, rebooking after a missed visit and waitlist offers when a slot opens.

For patients
Online booking at any hour, with a reminder before the visit.
For the business
Fewer missed appointments, and cancelled slots offered to the waitlist.
On the record
Every booking, reminder and change, with a time and a name.
02
Billing

Card payments go to your practice's own account, with the fee and cancellation policy shown before the patient commits and an export for your accountant.
Card payments into your own Stripe account, the cancellation policy shown at booking, invoices, statements and reconciliation, with an export for your accountant.

For patients
A clear price and policy before they commit, and an invoice in their app.
For the business
Payments reconciled against visits, with an export for your accountant.
On the record
What was charged, when, against which visit, and the policy the patient saw.
03
Scribe

The note, letters and referrals are drafted from the consultation, cited to published guidelines, for the doctor to read, edit and sign.
The note, letters and referrals written from the consultation, cited to published clinical guidelines, with the transcript beside the note, for the clinician to read, edit and sign.

For patients
The clinician's attention stays on them during the consultation.
For the business
Less time spent writing notes after clinic.
On the record
A contemporaneous note, signed, with the time, the signature and the source it cites.
04
Follow-up

WhatsApp, email and calls land in one thread per patient, with replies drafted in the language the patient wrote in for your team to approve.
WhatsApp, email and calls in one thread per patient, replies drafted in the patient's own language for your team to approve, a response clock on every new enquiry, and recalls a clinician approves.

For patients
A reply in the language they wrote in, approved by your team.
For the business
More enquiries answered within the hour, when they are most likely to book.
On the record
The whole conversation on one record, with response times.
05
Evidence and audit trail

Consent is recorded at booking, referrals are written from the visit, and every read of a record is logged against a named account.
Recording consent taken at booking, referrals written from the visit, patient flags for controlled drugs and safeguarding notes, and every read of a record logged against a named account.

For patients
Flags and checks in the record at the point of care.
For the business
Incident reviews that start from the audit trail, with times and names.
On the record
Who saw what, who changed what, and when, to the minute.
06
Reporting

Takings, front desk and response time reports for any period, and the patient's own record exported when they ask for it.
Takings, front desk and website reports, response targets, and the patient's own record exportable on request.

For patients
A copy of their record when they ask for it.
For the business
Weekly reports for leaders on response times, the front desk and takings.
On the record
Reports for any period, produced on the day they are asked for.

wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with you before go-live. Prices for clinics, groups and hospitals are on the wai pricing page.

What a well-run clinic gains

Patients answered within the hour, clinicians home on time and diaries that stay full, in published research.

7x
An enquiry answered within the hour is nearly seven times as likely to become a real conversation.⁸
30%
Clinicians using an ambient scribe did 30% less work after hours.⁹
23%
Patients sent a notification before their visit were 23% more likely to attend.¹⁰

Questions

Do I need ARS authorisation to open a medical practice in Paris?

Only for the care activities and heavy equipment listed in articles R6122-25 and R6122-26 of the Code de la santé publique. Authorisations run for 7 years.² Every doctor registers with the Ordre des médecins.¹

Is professional liability insurance mandatory for doctors in France?

Yes, for liberal practice. The Ordre says liberal health professionals are required to take out professional liability cover, under article L1142-2 of the Code de la santé publique.¹

Does a Paris practice need an HDS-certified host?

Yes, when a provider hosts personal health data on the practice's behalf. That host must be certified under article L1111-8 of the Code de la santé publique.³

How many doctors practise in Paris?

INSEE counted 2,722 general practitioners in the city of Paris in 2025, alongside 2,446 dentists.¹¹

Does the Ordre or the ARS approve practice software?

No. The Ordre registers doctors and the ARS authorises listed activities, not software. wai keeps the records your team uses to show how care is delivered.²

Paris regulators and guides

All regulators

RegulatorAll our regulator pages

Paris in depth

All insights

Opening a specialty clinic in Paris

Every specialty

Opening a clinic elsewhere

Every city

Request a demo for your Paris clinic.

We show wai running a Paris clinic on your own diary, notes and inbox, in a 15 minute video call with our team. wai hosts each clinic's records in its own country, under that country's rules. We set this up with you before go-live.