In the Netherlands, health insurer CZ saw its system affected by a software error, responsible for automatically generating a statement that led to tens of thousands of customers receiving higher refunds than they were entitled to in 2022 and 2023. According to De Volkskrantthe Dutch daily, CZ is now demanding the return of this money, which amounts to around millions of euros.
The error in question relates to the assessment of dental treatments for people who have taken out supplementary insurance for this purpose. At issue is the coverage of treatments that resulted from an accident, and in some cases, CZ also paid for treatments that were not related to any kind of accident. According to the announcement in a letter sent to affected customers at the end of January, the Dutch insurer admits that: "an error occurred in our systems". The fact that CZ's customers are not to blame for the error is no reason for CZ not to recover the money: "In fact, people have received compensation to which they were not entitled," said CZ's spokesperson. If the company doesn't recover the money, all the policyholders will have to pay for the mistake, "which isn't fair", he added, admitting that most customers will only have to pay back a few dozen euros.
The original article via NL Times can be read here.
