PRIVATE health insurance companies Dôvera and Európska Zdravotná Poisťovňa (EZP) registered 384 people without their consent, according to complaints filed with the Office for Healthcare Control (ÚDZS).
EZP rejected the policy holders' original complaints because it only accepts signed applications, spokesman Stanislav Jurikovič said. Dôvera issued a similar response, the ČTK newswire wrote.
"Evidently, the policy holders' personal data was abused," Richard Demovič, head of the ÚDZS, said. He said people only learned their insurance coverage had been involuntarily changed upon receiving a new insurance card. In this case, the ÚDZS cannot take any action against the insurers, but the affected clients can file a complaint in court, he added.
Jurikovič mentioned that all application forms had the required data and were confirmed by the ÚDZS. He said the complaints might have been filed by people who first agreed to transfer their policy but later changed their minds.
The clients will have to stay insured at EZP until the end of the year, he said.
Dôvera questioned the policy holders' claims as well.
"Several aspects of their complaint do not seem credible. It includes people who want to cancel their coverage, although no application form in their name was ever handed in," Zuzana Horníková from the insurer said.
ÚDZS recorded 1,200 cases of mistaken insurance coverage last year, of which 700 were proved wrongful.
The ÚDZS also stated that about 25,000 insurance applications had been sent to more than one insurance company, which is not allowed under the law. About 7,000 more forms include mistakes in personal data.
The ÚDZS noted the case of 900 applications in Dôvera that were rejected because the birth numbers were incorrect. Horníková said that the company has not investigated whether the information was deliberately false, but says the person in charge of the matter at the time is no longer an employee.
