Success in a dispute with the National Health Fund

The Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm has successfully concluded a long-standing dispute with the National Health Fund, the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Branch with its registered office in Poznań, in which attorney Magdalena Cieślińska – Dopierała represented one of the largest hospitals in Poznań. On 28 June 2019, the Court of Appeal in Poznań issued a judgment in this case, which finally resolved the dispute in favour of the Client of the Law Firm.

The case concerned audit proceedings conducted in 2010-2011, as a result of which the National Health Fund ordered the hospital to reimburse over PLN 1 million for unduly reported services and imposed a contractual penalty on this account.

Material issues examined by the Courts of the First and Second Instance, and then by the Supreme Court, were the interpretation of the concept of hospitalization through the prism of its duration and the legitimacy of the provision of health services under a contract for hospital treatment. As a result of a cassation appeal filed by the Sowisło & Topolewski Law Firm, by its judgment of 29 January 2016, the Supreme Court reversed the judgment and remanded the case to the Court of Appeal in Poznań for re-examination.

As a result of a thorough examination of the evidence and after taking evidence from an additional expert’s opinion, the Court of Appeal in Poznań, in the judgment of 28 June 2019, file ref. No. I ACa 454/16, fully shared the legal argumentation presented by attorney Magdalena Cieślińska – Dopierała and attorney Przemysław Przerywacz and upheld the plaintiff’s appeal in this case.