Dutch Dental Chain Atlas Accused of Systematic Billing Tampering, Involving 9 Clinics

Image Source: EenVandaag official website

DentalGoodNews｜ Recently, EenVandaag (an investigative program under AVROTROS) released an investigation accusing the Dutch commercial dental chain Atlas Dental Care of systematically falsifying patient health insurance bills for years. The evidence comes from employee testimonies and internal documents from 9 out of the 24 clinics under Atlas Dental Care.

According to EenVandaag's disclosure, three types of falsification operations were all manually executed by headquarters staff weeks after the treatment ended. First: Adding treatment items and durations that did not actually occur to already submitted bills (Case: A child's 10-minute treatment was recorded as three separate 15-minute items, totaling 45 minutes). Second: Billing for dentures before actual delivery, violating Dutch health insurance regulations. Third: Scheduling annual X-ray examinations without clinical necessity. Internal emails show that bills from 2024 were retroactively modified in 2025, with the aim of filling budget gaps.

Furthermore, EenVandaag also disclosed that some Atlas clinics had foreign dentists practicing without supervision who were not registered with BIG.

In response, former Silver Cross health insurance fraud investigator John Verkaik stated that his 7-person team intercepts approximately 10 million euros in improper dental insurance claims annually, calling such issues "just the tip of the iceberg." He also mentioned that patients can complain not only to the Dutch Healthcare Authority (NZa), which has a dental fraud reporting channel, but also to insurance companies and the Royal Dutch Dental Association (KNMT).

Atlas Dental Care denies all allegations regarding the 21 bills, stating that the related adjustments were merely administrative corrections. KNMT (Royal Dutch Dental Association) Chairman Hans de Vries announced that he will hold talks with insurance companies, and the involved members will be expelled.