Hospitals overcharge for routine treatments

Twelve hospitals – three in Brussels and nine in Wallonia – continue to charge excessive amounts for standard treatments despite having been fined four times for the offence, writes MP Nadia Sminate (N-VA) in today’s De Standaard. In all other hospitals, the guide amounts introduced by social affairs minister Frank Vandenbroucke in 2002 to address large price differences between some hospitals are respected. Average prices were determined by Vandenbroucke for a series of routine procedures, such as the removal of the gallbladder or the appendix. Among the hospitals singled out by Sminate are CHU Brugmann in Brussels, CHU Charleroi and Notre Dame-CH Reine Fabiola, also in Charleroi.