Cutbacks lead to less control of abuse by care companies

Zorgminister Fleur Agema (PVV) is considerably cutting back on supervision of healthcare. The Department of the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM), which keeps an eye on whether organizations in the healthcare sector do not have too much economic power, is closed and the 34 employees have to look for a different job. The ACM reports this on its own intranet.

ACM director Martijn Snoep writes in a message to all employees that the ‘management of care’ of the supervisor will ‘cease to exist in the long term’. According to Snoep, the reason is that « the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport reduces the financing of 2.5 million euros for the intensified supervision in healthcare ». According to him, that happens « not because our work would not be important, but because the ministry itself also stands for a cutback. »

Employees fear that the intervention will lead to the behavior of care companies ‘that we do not want’

According to the director, the supervisor does his « utmost » to find a « good place within the ACM », although they must also take into account forced dismissal. Managing Remko Bos emails: « The main thing is that you have all made a very important contribution all those years to the competition supervision in healthcare. All appreciation for the result, commitment and enthusiasm. »

Specialists who have conversations with care institutions and drug manufacturers work among the care management to explain to them what they can and cannot do. They do research-into price increases in hospitals after a merger, into the freedom of choice of patients after a takeover and into the question of whether care companies do not collect too much privacy-sensitive data. They also check whether hospitals that redistribute to cancer patients keep up with the rules and whether healthcare institutions do not make prohibited price agreements.

The ACM can impose fines or prohibit acquisitions. For example, the ACM recently fined an Italian drug manufacturer for 17 million euros, because it had greatly increased the price of a medicine against a rare metabolic disease in great spores.

Much of these supervisory work will no longer be carried out, employees fear. Only the legally required tasks – such as checking mergers and acquisitions in healthcare – will then remain intact. The risk is, according to an employee, that care companies will abuse the weakened supervision and « that there is room for behavior that we do not want ».

Still unknown cuts

In addition to the subsidy top of the Ministry of Health, there are more cuts at the ACM, where, according to the last available annual report, around 750 people work. In the coming years, the Cabinet Schoof wants to cut around 22 percent on the civil service of the central government. The service has been discussing this for months with the ministry. Candy on intranet: « The ACM is confronted with cuts, the size and impact thereof are not clear at the moment. »

Employees say that the regulator has been reluctant for some time when filling vacancies. Last year the director of Zorg left. He was not replaced, his work was housed with the director of another department. And there are « no more cakes with coffee, » said an employee, and the Christmas drink was undressed.

A ACM spokesperson confirms NRC That « intensified competition supervision in healthcare is being reduced, as a result of the announcement by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport to stop financing supervision in healthcare. Supervision in healthcare goes to the same level as that in other sectors. »

A VWS spokesperson e -mails that it was not the ministry but « the board of the ACM itself » to « eliminate the separate management. » The subsidy from VWS was temporary, according to the spokesperson, but was always extended from 2015. « The contribution of VWS has never been intended for regular supervision by the ACM on healthcare, but for specific tasks » such as building knowledge about the care sector, according to the spokesperson. « The regular supervision arising from the Competition Act on the healthcare sector » is « not touched by this. »

To share

Mail the editors