Payments and invoices

After your hospital stay, you do not have to pay anything when you leave. Advance payments are never requested, except for aesthetic procedures or for patients who are not affiliated with a Belgian health insurance fund. In this case, you pay the advance to the hospital at the latest two weeks before the operation by bank transfer. You will find the correct details on your informed consent.

Receipt of your invoice

You will receive the invoice by post at your home address or digitally via e-mail (if we have your e-mail address). You will normally receive your invoice within seven weeks of the end of the month in which you were discharged from hospital. This is only the case if your file can be fully completed.

Please note that you will also receive a hospital invoice if you came for a consultation in your doctor's private practice and/or if an examination or sample collection took place in our hospital laboratory. In certain specialist cases (e.g. molecular biology), our laboratory forwards the sample to another lab. In that case, you may receive an invoice from UZ Gent or UZ Antwerpen.

Cancelling your appointment

To cancel your appointment, contact the doctor's secretary. This can be done up to 24 hours before your scheduled appointment.

If you cancel later or not at all, you will be charged a fixed fee of 25 euros. Any exceptions to this rule are listed on the appointment page.

Paying your invoice

You must pay your invoice within 30 days of the shipping date. If your invoice is not paid within that period, conventional damages of 10 %, with a minimum of 25 euros, will be due without notice of default and by right. In addition, interest will be due from the due date, equal to the legal interest rate plus 2%.

You will receive a payment reminder by SMS if the invoice remains unpaid. In this case, the invoice may have ended up in your spam folder .

Explanation of your invoice

After your stay, you will receive your hospital bill. The form of this document and the information it contains are entirely determined by the government.

On the first page of your invoice you will find a summary of all costs. Your health insurance fund pays a large part of your costs directly to the hospital. This amount is also communicated informatively on this first sheet, at the bottom of the summary. There are three columns:

Column 1	Column 2	Column 3
Here are the amounts paid by the health insurance fund.	These are the legally determined patient contributions such as patient contributions: fixed, predetermined amounts for fees or medicines that are reimbursed.	Here you find the costs for room supplements, non-reimbursed medicines, fees and ancillary costs.

Column 1 and column 2 together constitute the fee legally set by the Riziv. The costs listed in columns 2 and 3 are payable by the patient. At the end of the invoice, you will find the 'balance to be paid by the patient' and the account number where you can deposit the amount.

Your invoice is further broken down in detail into the following sections:

1. Stay costs	These are the costs for your hospital stay: the use of your room, meals, nursing assistance. If you opted for a single room, the room supplement is also mentioned in this section.
2. Flat-rate costs	Part of the costs are charged with a fixed amount (lump sum), even if you did not use those services.
3. Pharmacy costs	These are the costs charged by the hospital pharmacy, e.g. for medicines, medical devices and implants. In addition to co-payments and supplements, legal delivery margins may also be charged.
4. Fees	The fees of doctors, dentists, physiotherapists and midwives.
5. Other supplies	Costs for plaster casts and blood products, among others.
6. Patient transport	Costs for transport, urgent or non-urgent, incurred by the hospital.
7. Miscellaneous costs	During your stay in hospital, a number of products and services are provided for reasons of comfort, such as TV, internet, soap, water, fridge, etc. A flat-rate charge of EUR 8 per day will be made for these. These non-medical costs are entirely the patient's responsibility and are not reimbursed by the health insurance fund. An overview of these various costs can be found at the bottom of this page.
8. VAT	If applicable, you pay VAT on aesthetic procedures, such as breast enlargement. VAT is also charged on accommodation and, for example, on meals when rooming-in.

Convention status doctors

Curious about your doctor's convention status? You can find it on your doctor's contact page.

Every two years, the government, doctors' associations and health insurance funds conclude a convention (or agreement) on doctors' official fees. Since the medical profession is a free profession, each doctor can choose whether or not to accept this convention.

There are three types of convention status: fully conventioned doctors, non-conventioned doctors and partially (or partially) conventioned doctors.

Conventionalised doctors (C)
These doctors apply the commitment rate. After reimbursement from the health insurance fund, you pay only the personal share (or copayment).

Non-conventional doctors (NC)
These doctors freely determine their rates (or fees). After reimbursement from the health insurance fund, you pay the personal share (or co-payment) and possibly a fee supplement.

Partially (or partially) contracted doctors (P)
These doctors apply the commitment rate only on some days and hours. On other days and hours, they freely determine their rates (or fees).

The codes C, NC and P on your bill stand for 'conventioned', 'unconventioned' and 'partial or partial convention' respectively.

The price of the room per day is paid by the NIHDI (National Institute for Sickness and Disability Insurance). The 'brake fees' and additional surcharges are paid by the patient. You also pay part of the commitment fee (legally fixed price) yourself. This depends on your health insurance and hospitalisation insurance.

If you stay in a single room, the doctor may charge a fee supplement. The fee (or honorarium) is the remuneration that doctors, dentists, physiotherapists, midwives or speech therapists charge for their services.

You can find an overview of the convention statuses here

Price of your room and fee supplements

Your choice of room does not affect the quality of care or treatments. The difference only has to do with greater comfort and privacy.

These fee supplements apply both to your treating doctor and to other doctors involved in your procedure or treatment.
The compulsory health insurance (or health insurance fund) does not intervene in the cost of these fee supplements. Depending on your insurance policy, your hospitalisation
insurance will pay (part of) these additional fees.
In the outpatient clinic, a non-conventional doctor can charge a fee supplement up to a maximum of 150%.
The maximum fee supplement in our hospital is 0 % in a double or multiple room and 150 % in a single or single plus room.

Maximum fee supplement	Double or multiple room	Single room
Conventional doctor*	0 %	150 %
Non-conventional doctor*	0 %	150 %
Social status patient**	0 %	150 %

(*) You can read more about the doctor's status above.
(**) Your social status is communicated by your health insurance fund e.g. chronically ill, long-term unemployed over 50 years of age, etc.

Room supplements also apply when opting for a single room:

65 € per day for an ordinary single room (= exempt from VAT)
85 € per day for a single room in the maternity ward (standard room) (= exempt from VAT)
160 € per day for a single room plus in the maternity ward (only in AZ Maria Middelares)
0 € per day for a single room on the children's ward

You also pay an accommodation flat rate, a fixed amount for the use of e.g. television, WiFi, water... This flat rate is €8 per day (= price incl. VAT).

Watch the video about signing your admission declaration and the corresponding fees:

This video requires your consent. Please accept marketing cookies in your cookie preferences to view the video.

Adjust preferences

Cost estimate

Calculate a price estimate for your treatment

Rooming-in (staying overnight)

Rooming-in (staying overnight)

If one of your relatives or close ones is admitted, you can indicate your wish to accompany the patient during the admission.

This is possible on the neonatology, maternity and paediatrics wards. Seats are available that unfold into a bed. For personal hygiene, the bathroom of the patient room you are staying with can be used.
This is not possible when you are regularly admitted to other wards. Exceptions are possible in specific situations, e.g. a carer staying overnight with a person with a disability. Discuss this with the head nurse of the nursing wardwherethe patient is staying.
Watching is not considered rooming-in and is always allowed.

The hotel function comes with some costs:

Lodging in the patient's room: 15 euros per night

Lodging in a separate patient room: 65 euros per night

Additional drinks, meals or snacks ordered will also be charged to the room. The document below will give you an indication of the prices.

Most requested products and services

List of the most requested products and services at Maria Middelares General Hospital

Download

Contact if you have questions about your invoice

Invoicing Department

Tel. +32 (0)9 246 20 20
E-mail: facturatie@mijnziekenhuis.be

Pease contact the invoicing department with any questions you may have about your invoice. The department is available by phone Monday to Friday 9am to 12pm and 1pm to 2pm.