INAMI-RIZIV number (Belgium)

INAMI (Institut national d'assurance maladie-invalidité) and RIZIV (Rijksinstituut voor ziekte- en invaliditeitsverzekering) are the French and Dutch names of the same federal institute. Its number lets you certify services listed in the nomenclature, the official list of reimbursable care, so that health insurance reimburses your patients.

INAMI says the number has 11 digits. The first eight stay the same throughout your career, and the last three are a competence code that can change as your situation changes, for example from a doctor in training to a recognised specialist.

• Doctors. Effectively all doctors who will bill care. INAMI requires a visa from the FPS Public Health, registration with the Order of Physicians and a contact address in Belgium. Doctors in recognised training or recognised specialists receive and update their number automatically; a doctor whose training plan is pending, or who works without nomenclature services, applies for a number with code 000.
• Nurses. INAMI says hospital nurses, and those in rest homes, do not need an INAMI number to work. You need one to bill nursing care, for example as a home care nurse, or to work on a flat rate in a medical house.
• Midwives, physiotherapists and other professions. Each has its own INAMI page and form; midwives with a code ending in 003 can also prescribe, subject to FPS approval.

1. Obtain your visa to practise from the FPS Public Health. With a foreign diploma that means Community equivalence or recognition first.
2. Doctors register with the Order of Physicians.
3. Download the INAMI registration form for your profession, complete and sign it. The nurse form asks for your national register number and visa number.
4. Send it to INAMI. Nurses can email the French-language nursing team at [email protected]; doctors and dentists use [email protected].
5. INAMI checks your visa (and, for doctors, your Order registration) and sends your number by email.

For nurses and midwives, if you send the form within one month of the date of your visa, INAMI registers you from the visa date. If you send it later, your registration date is the date INAMI receives the application. It can never be earlier than the visa date. For doctors, a code 000 number is activated from the date of Order registration, and training numbers from the start of the training placement. INAMI does not publish a fee for the number.

• Applying before the visa. INAMI cannot issue a number without the FPS visa, so do not send the form early.
• Waiting too long after the visa. Missing the one-month window pushes back the date from which you can bill.
• Thinking a hospital nurse must have one. Hospital employment does not need it, but home care and medical house work do.
• Wrong competence code. Check the last three digits match your current status, since billing rights depend on them.