‘Small criminal care agency can commit fraud with impunity’

This reports it NRC. For example, recovering unjustly paid care money is often impossible and criminal investigations into this type of practice are rarely initiated.

Warning insurers

Five health insurers, DSW, CZ, VGZ, Menzis and Zilveren Kruis, tell this to the newspaper and argue for a quick change in the law. According to these insurers, the problem lies with the current Healthcare Providers Accession Act (Wtza). A law that has existed since the beginning of last year.

This law states that a new healthcare provider with more than ten healthcare providers is subject to a licensing obligation. This means that this healthcare provider must meet all kinds of requirements, but this does not apply to small healthcare providers. They only have to report that they want to provide care.

High bills

It is therefore quite easy to set up your own care agency, because the requirements are minimal. But many of these small agencies now often turn out to be set up by criminals, with the aim of committing fraud. They do this by delivering high bills to customers, or by charging for care that they never provided.

“Everyone can now easily set up a care agency,” says Menzis Care Control manager John de Kruiff.

Risk-free fraud

That is why insurers are now sounding the alarm. Bregje Smans, anti-fraud specialist at CZ, says to the NRC: “Small healthcare companies continue to pop up and make off with large amounts of money”.

In addition, the insurers indicate that the criminals can commit fraud risk-free in this way. “Nine times out of ten, companies that have committed fraud go bankrupt, and there is nothing to be gained,” Mariska de Kleine of Zilveren Kruis told the newspaper.

Full control

More checks could offer a logical solution, were it not for the fact that pre-screening is virtually impossible. In addition, a full check on new healthcare providers would not be considered proportionate, because this leads to a high administrative workload. Reasons enough for health insurers to sound the alarm.