Dentists reject arbitration in PRSI fees dispute

The Irish Dental Association today rejected any meeting to address the dentists’ fees dispute because of a "precondition" imposed by the Department of Social and Family Affairs.

Mr Donal Atkins, general secretary of the Irish Dental Association (IDA), told ireland.coman offer by the Minister for Social and Family Affairs, Ms Mary Coughlan, for an independent arbitrator to examine the dentists' claim for a fees increase had been refused.

This was because of a precondition that price increases introduced by dentists to cope with medical inflation and in lieu of any agreement with the Department be removed, he said.

"This is unacceptable to our members and is not going to happen," said Mr Atkins.

Yesterday the Department said it would no longer accept claims from dentists who had started charging increased rates to people entitled to dental benefit through PRSI - effectively suspending the scheme.

But Mr Atkins claims because of inflation dentists were obliged to extend the "balanced billing" mechanism, with patients paying the difference between the "real" cost of treatments and the amount available under the PRSI Dental Benefit Scheme.

He said a claim lodged by dentists with the Department two years ago for price increases of between 20 and 30 per cent had been completely ignored by the Department.

Mr Atkins said IDA members had extended "balanced billing" from 11 to the 18 items covered under the PRSI dental scheme.

A spokesperson for the Department confirmed that the involvement of an independent arbitrator was dependent on the dentists returning charges to agreed rates.

The Department has advised patients to check if their dentist was imposing increased charges before starting treatment.

If the dentist indicated that he or she was not working within the contract fee structure, patients were advised to contact the Department directly, where they would be provided with the name of a dentist who was continuing to operate under the contract.