Around 5% of the bills sent out by doctors and hospitals involve double charging earning them billions of euros in extra income, according to Maastricht University economist Fleur Hasaart in Friday’s Volkskrant.

Hasaart examined all the claims made against health insurer CZ between 2006 and 2008 and found both deliberate and ‘grey area’ claims. In total, hospitals and specialists earned €1bn extra during those years, said the researcher, who also works for CZ.
Since 2005, hospital treatment has been divided into packages of costs – known as a dbc – and patients pay for the entire package whether or not they have actually had all the treatment.
Unnecessary
But some specialists are charging extra for, say, additional x-rays. This allows them to bill for an entire second dbc. In other cases, patients are charged for a more expensive dbc than medically necessary.
There is also a large difference between hospitals, Hasaart told the Volkskrant. In some hospitals 90% of varicose vein operations take place as a day treatment but in others the operations are classified as overnight, which generates more money.
The Dutch medical specialist’s organisation told the paper it did not recognise the claims and pointed out it is up to health insurance companies to check the accuracy of bills.
Meanwhile, VVD MPs are calling for hospital patients to be told the cost of their treatment in an effort to boost awareness of the rising costs.
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