Six Dutch hospitals are allowed to collaborate to improve care for breast cancer patients

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has cleared the collaboration plans of six Dutch hospitals that wish to bring their care for breast cancer patients to a higher level. These six hospitals are located throughout the Netherlands, and are not each other’s direct competitors. The hospitals wish to develop a standardized approach to high-quality breast cancer care. Their plan is to negotiate collectively with health insurers. Health insurers are subsequently able to purchase this care under uniform conditions. Chris Fonteijn, Chairman of the Board of ACM, adds: “We welcome collaboration between market participants that are not each other’s competitors, and who wish to improve the quality and efficiency of their health care services.” ACM emphasizes that this collaboration specifically concerns breast cancer care. The plans do not concern a comprehensive collaboration covering medical specialist care, as a whole.

What benefits will the collaboration produce?

The six hospitals will work together in a collaboration called Santeon. Together they wish to enhance the quality and efficiency of this branch of medical specialist care, and come to a transparent, nationwide service. The hospitals collaborating in Santeon have jointly agreed a standardized approach with regard to breast cancer care that they believe is of high quality. Patients, consumers and health insurers will benefit from this collaboration, according to the hospitals involved.

ACM has established that the six Santeon-hospitals currently do not compete to any significant extent with each other with regard to breast cancer care. This has been revealed by the data that the hospitals have released about where their patients come from. The hospitals are active in different regions in the Netherlands, and their catchment areas have little or no overlap when it comes to breast cancer care. In areas where there is overlap (and that only concerns a very small number of patients), there are sufficient other hospitals nearby that also offer breast cancer care.

ACM has come to the conclusion that the collective negotiations of the Santeon-hospitals with health insurers concerning breast cancer care do not currently result in any appreciable restriction of competition.

The following six hospitals work together in the Santeon collaboration:

1. Martini Ziekenhuis – Groningen
2. Medisch Spectrum Twente– Enschede
3. Canisius-Wilhelmina Ziekenhuis – Nijmegen
4. Catharina Ziekenhuis – Eindhoven
5. Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis – Amsterdam
6. St. Antonius Ziekenhuis – Utrecht / Nieuwegein