Health authorities want requests for district nursing to be processed faster

Health insurers need to employ more people so that they can process requests for district nursing faster, the Dutch healthcare authority NZa said to ANP. Currently requests for care from a provider with whom the insurer has no contract can take weeks to process. This must happen within five days, the NZa said.

Clients need to ask for permission before using services from a health care provider that does not have a contract with the insurer. Otherwise, they risk having to pay the costs themselves. Response times can extend due to incomplete applications, reduced capacity from the health insurer’s side, or unclear information.

The NZa said that clients often have to wait an "unacceptable" amount of time for a response from their insurer. “Policyholders can be disadvantaged if they have to wait too long for care. During the pandemic, it is essential that the flow from other forms of care continues. For example, if patients can only be released from hospital when district nursing has been arranged”, a spokesperson for the NZa says.

“We think the rule of thumb should be a processing time of five working days when the application for district nursing is correctly filled in”, the authority said.

Clients also have the option to request a personal budget from the health insurer, however, that can also be a lengthy procedure the NZa said.