Some 15% of people who think their hospital bills are too high are proved right, the AD says on Tuesday.

Patients are paying more attention to bills because they have to pay an increasingly large part themselves, as the own-risk element in health insurance increases, the paper says.

CZ is the only large insurance company which keeps a record of wrongful invoices. So far this year, the checks have saved €400,000, double last year’s total, the AD says.

Health insurers are keen to encourage patients to check their bills. ‘They are the only ones who know if treatment was actually carried out,’ Zilveren Kruis spokeswoman Christine Rompa told the paper.

Nevertheless, this is not easy, as invoices only give a very brief description of the treatment and the rest of the invoice is in the form of a complicated system of codes.

‘Hospitals should send out specified invoices like you get if your car goes in to the garage for routine maintenance,’ Thom Meens of the Dutch patients’ federation told the AD.

Minister

Labour MPs have called on health minister Edith Schippers to explain why hospital bills are so often wrong, news website Nu.nl says. ‘The minister has some explaining to do,’ Lea Bouwmeester told the website. ‘People need to be able to trust their hospital bills, particularly if they have a high own-risk.’

Schippers told Goedemorgen Nederland on Tuesday that hospitals are primarily responsible for ensuring invoices are accurate, but that insurance companies also have a role.

‘Costs are becoming more transparent in many sectors so I would urge everyone to check properly,’ she is quoted as saying.