Investigators at Maastricht University Have Reported New Data on Health Policy and Law (Contested evidence: a Dutch reimbursement decision taken to…

Politics & Government Week

Investigators at Maastricht University Have Reported New Data on Health Policy and Law (Contested evidence: a Dutch reimbursement decision taken to court)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Politics & Government Week -- Data detailed on Legal Issues - Health Policy and Law have been presented. According to news reporting from Maastricht, Netherlands, by VerticalNews journalists, research stated, "This paper examines a remarkable lawsuit in health care rationing. The Patients Association for Interstitial Cystitis sued the Dutch National Health Care Institute for alleged misconduct against Interstitial Cystitis patients, as the Institute decided that bladder instillations with chondroitin sulphate or hyaluronic acid are no longer covered by the basic health insurance."

The news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Maastricht University, "The patients' organisation challenged the Institute for basing its standpoint on scientific evidence; overruling clinical expertise and patients' experiences. While scientific advice is often solicited in public health issues, simultaneously, the authority of scientific advice is increasingly being questioned in the public domain. Also, the judiciary is frequently called upon to adjudicate in rationing decisions."

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: "Based on an ethnographic study of the National Health Care Institute, drawing on insights from the field of Science and Technology Studies, we analyse this lawsuit as a negotiation of what knowledge counts in reimbursement decisions."

For more information on this research see: Contested evidence: a Dutch reimbursement decision taken to court. Health Economics, Policy, and Law, 2016;12(3):325-344.

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting F. Moes, 1Dept. of Health, Ethics and Society, Research School CAPHRI, Maastricht University, Maastricht, Netherlands. Additional authors for this research include E. Houwaart, D. Delnoij and K. Horstman.