Correspondent: Marthe Haverkamp
The Dutch Council for Health and Society (known as RVS in the Netherlands) is an authoritative national advisory board that makes recommendations on issues concerning public health and society. In October, RVS published a report that recommends changing the way health care is currently purchased by health insurers in selective and detailed contracts with providers. It states that the current system with competing private health insurers that was introduced in 2006 has failed to create sufficient value. RVS proposes to stop the annual selective contracting and its requirements as a means to improve health care delivery and to focus instead on professional responsibility and the power of patients to choose the best provider.