The Belgian Union of Healthcare Providers (UBPS) has renewed its call for a parliamentary inquiry into the workings of Belgium's health insurance funds, alongside an examination of whether an independent body should be established to oversee medical controls.
The organisation said such an inquiry should not seek to condemn the health insurance funds or call into question their role within Belgium's social security system.
Rather, it would allow parliament to subject their governance, various responsibilities, oversight mechanisms and financial flows to greater scrutiny, while examining potential conflicts of interest stemming from the breadth of their functions.
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UBPS has also called for consideration to be given to establishing an independent medical oversight body, operating separately from health insurance organisations.
"This is not about being for or against health insurance funds," the organisation said. "It is about ensuring that our system provides all the guarantees of independence, transparency and prevention of conflicts of interest that patients, healthcare professionals and medical advisers are entitled to expect."
The renewed calls follow the publication last week of a letter addressed by a medical adviser to the head of Belgium's National Institute for Health and Disability Insurance (INAMI/RIZIV).
In the letter, the doctor described what they considered to be instances of influence, whether deliberate or inadvertent, exerted by the administrative management of health insurance funds.
According to the medical adviser, such influence risks placing pressure on doctors' professional independence and their ability to carry out their duties impartially.
