Room for collaboration in emergency home care
Cooperative health care institution Thuis & Veilig will procure emergency home care from regional providers, bundle this care, and sell it at a national level to health insurers. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) has cleared this plan. The benefits of this collaboration are greater than its potential anticompetitive risks. ACM believes that Thuis & Veilig is a good example of collaboration in health care.
The benefits
Emergency home care consists of:
- Specialized nurses can be reached by phone
- Consultations concerning the need for care and referrals (triage)
- Arranging visits from health care providers
Emergency home care is available 24/7
The collaboration of Thuis & Veilig leads to benefits in quality, continuity, and affordability of emergency home care for patients and insured. Emergency home care no longer has to be provided on a small scale by each home care provider. This ensures the continued availability of emergency home care and a more efficient spending of municipal health care funds. Furthermore, the collaboration has, partly in consultation with ACM, been designed in a way that sufficient choice and sufficient competitive pressure will continue to exist.
Options for clients of home care
Clients will continue to have complete freedom of choice for regular home-care providers. This collaboration only concerns the initial care services in emergency situations.
Sufficient competition
Emergency home care is one element in the entire range of home care services. ACM has estimated that the potential anticompetitive concerns resulting from the collaboration regarding emergency home care through Thuis & Veilig are small. Thuis & Veilig procures this care from various providers through a public tender process. Health care providers are able to secure the contract by offering good quality at a competitive price.
Health insurers also have a choice of home care
The cooperative leaves health insurers free to enter into contracts with providers that are not members of the cooperative. Other providers of home care are able to offer or keep offering emergency home care. In this way, health insurers also have other ways of procuring emergency care. Health insurers thus continue to have options, too.