Diederik Schrijvershof and Annabel Kingma are once again taking legal action to enforce effective legal protection for healthcare providers in proceedings against the NZa before the Trade and Industry Appeals Tribunal (CBb).
The case follows earlier proceedings won by Maverick Advocaten on behalf of general practitioners (see here). Those proceedings concerned various violations of the Regulation on transparency in the healthcare procurement process under the Health Insurance Act (‘Regeling Zorginkoop’) by healthcare insurer Zilveren Kruis (‘ZK’). In 2022, various general practitioners had requested the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa) to enforce the Healthcare Procurement Regulation. In 2022 (NZa decision) and in its objection (2023), the NZa found that ZK had not violated the Healthcare Procurement Regulation and refused to take (sufficient) enforcement action. In 2025, the CBb ruled in favour of a general practitioner: ZK had violated Articles 4, 6 and 7 of the Healthcare Procurement Regulation when procuring general practitioner care.
The CBb ordered the NZa to take a new decision on the objection within six weeks. In this new decision on the objection, the NZa stated that ZK had violated the Healthcare Procurement Regulation on three points, but the NZa limited itself to issuing a warning to ZK. From a legal point of view, this approach is equivalent to (once again) rejecting the GP's request for enforcement. The CBb stated, among other cases, in this judgment that, in the event of a violation of the Healthcare Procurement Regulation established by the NZa, a warning is equivalent to a rejection of the enforcement request. The NZa is aware that healthcare insurers have been violating the Healthcare Procurement Regulation for years. This is partly because they pay little attention to warnings from the NZa. As the NZa has now once again rejected the enforcement request, there is no effective legal protection for the healthcare provider. In doing so, the NZa is sending the wrong signal to healthcare providers and healthcare insurers. The NZa's actions are therefore now at the heart of the new proceedings before the CBb.
Maverick Advocaten assists numerous healthcare providers and their trade associations on a daily basis in order to achieve adequate (enforcement of) binding NZa rules for healthcare insurers in healthcare procurement and in tackling abuses of procurement power by health insurers. Maverick Advocaten represents De Bevlogen Huisartsen and various DBH general practitioners in proceedings to obtain realistic rates from the NZa (see here and here). Maverick Advocaten also assists them in enforcing the NZa's enforcement of the healthcare (procurement) obligation of health insurers. In addition, Maverick Advocaten litigates on behalf of healthcare providers to obtain fair rates from healthcare purchasers such as healthcare insurers, healthcare offices and municipalities. For more information about the rights of healthcare providers in healthcare procurement and the options available to their trade associations to support them in this regard, see www.zorgcontractering.com.
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