Pledging of (partial) claims for the payment of care provided in the event of the healthcare provider’s liquidation

Legal news

On 17 November 2017, the Dutch Supreme Court handed down a judgment on the pledging of claims of a healthcare provider against health insurers in the situation of the healthcare provider’s liquidation. In cassation, the Dutch Supreme Court had to give a judgment on the question as to whether there can be any interim back wages in the event of a medical treatment contract. In this judgment, the Dutch Supreme Court held that in the case of a medical treatment contract, several services that can be identified as such and that are capable of being expressed in monetary terms can be pointed out. After such service has been provided, this (in principle) leads to a corresponding claim for payment of wages. If this service was provided prior to the healthcare provider’s liquidation, the corresponding claim may have been pledged in a legally valid manner. The pledging of claims under medical treatment contracts may therefore – among other things in the case of a healthcare provider’s liquidation – provide interesting security. A summary of the judgment is given below.