Dutch dental chain Atlas accused of systematic billing fraud
Commercial dental chain Atlas Dental Care has been accused of manipulating patient bills for years, according to an investigation by EenVandaag. Employees say the chain routinely added procedures and consultation times that never occurred, generating substantial, improper income. Experts describe the practice as part of a wider structural issue in Dutch dental care.
EenVandaag collected statements from nine of Atlas’s 24 practices and supporting documents, revealing that bills were frequently “padded” after treatment. Former employees said adjustments were often made manually from Atlas’s headquarters in Rosmalen, sometimes weeks after the patient visit.
A preventive assistant reported: “If I worked for 20 minutes, I recorded 20 minutes. But that wasn’t allowed. If the agenda said 30 minutes, I had to declare 30 minutes. They literally said: ‘Then go polish a bit more to fill the time.’” Another assistant described the effect on children: “A child I saw for only 10 minutes suddenly had 15 minutes of instruction, 15 minutes of guidance, and 15 minutes of cleaning on the invoice.”
Even when staff recorded only the actual services performed, invoices were altered by headquarters, the assistant said. One dentist described pressure from management to go beyond standard practices: “I had patients in the chair who had received dentures from me a year earlier. They suddenly had a new 80-euro bill for ‘surcharges.’”
Former Atlas owners Jos Hetzel and Annelies Brood from Weert said that after selling their practice to the chain in 2021, Annelies was immediately fired and Jos’s hours were halved. “A preventive assistant declared three times five minutes. On weekends or evenings, headquarters added more minutes,” Jos said. Annelies called it “outright fraud. Doing this for every patient probably brings in a significant sum.”
Patients also reported unusual charges. Renate Baas from Tiel recalled bills of 34.50 euros for extra dental advice that she did not recall receiving. In 2025, many 2024 invoices were retrospectively corrected. Atlas described this as an administrative adjustment, but internal emails reviewed by EenVandaag indicate the owner intended to fill gaps in the company budget. Former advisory dentist John Verkaik said: “Sending a bill a year later? That’s unacceptable. If you commit fraud, at least be subtle.”
Verkaik, who worked at insurer Zilveren Kruis as a fraud investigator, said he and six colleagues prevented about 10 million euros annually in improper claims. “This is not just an Atlas problem, it’s a system vulnerability. What we caught is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
The investigation revealed that Atlas routinely took X-rays of children regardless of medical necessity and sometimes billed for dentures before they were delivered, practices Verkaik described as illegal. Former employees also reported that foreign-trained dentists without Dutch BIG registration worked unsupervised in some clinics, a breach of regulations.
Verkaik advised patients to review bills carefully and seek second opinions if unsure. Complaints can be filed with insurers, the Dutch Dental Association (KNMT), or the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa), which maintains a reporting channel for dental fraud. “If they hesitate when you ask for a second opinion, your alarm bells should already be ringing,” he said.
Atlas Dental Care denies the allegations. The chain stated that all 21 claims presented were incorrect and that adjustments were made solely for administrative corrections.
