Healthcare insurers have begun double-checking hospital bills, with CZ the latest to announce it will do so, the Telegraaf reports on Tuesday.

The reason for the move is an investigation carried out by the Dutch health authority NZa into billing at the St Antonius hospital in Utrecht during which unsubstantiated bills totalling tens of millions of euros were uncovered, the Telegraaf says.

‘The NZa has greater investigatory powers than health insurers,’ a CZ spokeswoman said. ‘That means more things have come to light. We are looking into what signs thrown up by this report we can check ourselves.’

Treatment

Achmea is already focusing its attention on bills from accident and emergency departments. In particular, it is checking whether patients were treated for all the hours being claimed and if they were given the treatment on the bill.

Menzis has been double-checking invoices for some time and has claimed back €70m in wrong bills, mainly from hospitals, over the past two years, the Telegraaf says.

VGZ is looking at bills for day admission for diabetes care and problems with IUD contraceptives, the Telegraaf says.

Women using an IUD first have to buy the device at a pharmacy and go to hospital to have it fitted. However, research has shown hospitals are also billing insurers for the device, so it is effectively being paid for twice.