Dispensing chemists are giving patients' medical information to the commercial company Tena, makers of incontinence pads, without asking permission.

There are 650,000 people in the Netherlands with incontinence and new rules from health insurer Achmea and its subsidiaries Agis and Zilveren Kruis say dispensing chemists must divide patients who need pads into categories, from light to heavy.

Achmea changed the rules on July 1 from an unlimited supply of pads to a daily tariff. The 'user profile' determines how much dispensing chemists are paid per person, per day.

Dispensing chemists make very little money on incontinence pads and outsourcing calls to determine which category a patient falls into saves them a lot of time, reports the Volkskrant.