Dutch health insurer ranks hospitals on breast cancer surgery

Courts in the Netherlands have ruled that one of the country’s largest health insurers can publish on its website its ranking of hospitals for breast cancer surgery.

Centraal Zorgverzekeraar (Central Health Insurer) (CZ) ranks 93 hospitals in four categories: “best,” “good,” “can do better,” and those with which it will “no longer contract.” The rankings are based principally on the volume of operations performed each year (www.cz.nl/overzicht-beste-borstkankerzorg).

The insurer sparked a public debate after it announced that from 2011 it would not sign contracts for breast cancer treatment with six hospitals (later reduced to four) because it judged that at least 70 operations a …