Smarter with scarcity: Why claims data can save healthcare
- 13 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Dutch healthcare is among the best in the world. Yet it’s at risk of becoming gridlocked. As the population ages, healthcare demand is rising, while staff shortages persist. This leads to a lack of capacity, making the question of how to keep healthcare accessible and affordable increasingly urgent. The solution isn’t working harder or hiring more staff, it’s working smarter. And for that, we have a largely untapped goldmine: claims data.
Claims data as medicine
Claims data is the information submitted by healthcare providers to insurers for reimbursement. It contains a wealth of insights into treatment patterns, volumes and variation. By analyzing this data intelligently, hospitals can identify where care can be delivered more efficiently. Not by cutting costs, but by avoiding overtreatment and streamlining processes.
Hospitals already using this approach have seen impressive results: €100 million in annual efficiency gains and a potential reduction in nursing shortages equivalent to 6,000 full-time employees. That’s 8% of all nurses in the Netherlands. These aren’t just spreadsheet victories, they’re real improvements: shorter waiting times, fewer unnecessary check-ups and patients going home sooner.
From insight to impact
i2i and IG&H have been using claims data to improve healthcare processes for over 15 years. Yet only 30% of hospitals participate, and just two insurers are participating. Meanwhile, the impact for this group reaches 1–2% of their annual revenue, which is already over €100 million in effectiveness gains. This isn’t potential; it’s reality. The examples speak for themselves:
Using benchmark data, a medical department decided to reduce routine follow-up visits where possible. This immediately freed up outpatient capacity and shortened waiting times.
In another hospital, data showed that patients with hip or knee issues weren’t receiving enough physiotherapy before surgery. By optimizing this “stepped-care” pathway, some surgeries could be avoided. A win-win: patients avoid the operating room, and surgical capacity is freed up for others.
After analyzing data, one hospital chose to schedule certain surgeries in the morning. This allowed patients to go home the same day and led to both a better experience for the patient and a major saving in bed capacity.
This approach structurally frees up capacity, both in staffing and hospital beds. And this unused capacity is urgently needed to meet growing demand without requiring more personnel or space.
Time for a national standard
Right now, this approach is limited to a few frontrunners. It's therefore a missed opportunity. Instead, this method should be embraced nationwide. Claims data analysis can be applied more broadly, even in the care chain before and after hospital care.
For example, by combining data, you can measure the success of a prostate surgery by tracking the use of incontinence products afterward. This reveals huge variation between hospitals and highlights areas for improvement. The same applies to long-term care, where we can identify and address inappropriate differences between organizations.
It’s time to scale up nationally. Now it’s up to insurers and care providers to take responsibility and use this data systematically to ensure sustainable healthcare in the Netherlands. Everyone has a right to healthcare, but without action, not everyone will have access. If we don’t use claims data, we lose capacity. If we do, we will win back thousands of helping hands.
Bas Leerink
Managing Director Healthcare
+31654906215
