Consultants urged to sign off on payments

THE SITUATION where hospitals are owed €200 million from health insurance companies is no longer tolerable and must be dealt with as soon as possible, Minister of State Róisín Shortall has said.

Ms Shortall, who is a junior minister at the Department of Health and Children, said she was in favour of fining hospital consultants who do not sign off on payments.

She has written to both the Health Service Executive (HSE) chief executive Cathal Magee and the secretary general of the Department of Health and Children, Michael Scanlan. She has also called for a meeting this week with both the Department of Health and the HSE and wants all money to be collected within a month.

At present, hospital consultants have to authorise payments before the claim forms are presented to health insurance companies to collect the money. The Department of Health is now examining the legal ramifications of bypassing consultants to allow hospitals deal directly with health insurance companies.

According to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General last August, a total of €162 million is owed by health insurance companies to hospitals which could be collected immediately while a further €40 million has been generated within the previous 30 days. Ms Shortall said that figure had not changed substantially since then and it was now an even greater priority given the strain on the health service.

Though her brief is primary care, and hospitals are ultimately the responsibility of the Minister for Health, James Reilly, she said the situation was having an “intolerable” effect on the whole health service.

“Clearly where there is such enormous pressure on every aspect of the budget, it is going to be a priority to get in all the money that is owed,” she said.

“It is just not tolerable to allow a situation like this to continue where there is money owed. I want to bring this to a head, I want action taken. There needs to be a strategy put in place because this money is desperately needed.”

Ms Shortall said she was still trying to find out the reasons why consultants, who were among the best paid in the world, were reluctant to sign off on claim forms, and she was in favour of fining them if they continued to “drag their heels”.

“This is part of their job and if they are not doing their job, there should be financial penalties,” she explained.

She also believes the continuing impasse is one of the reasons why there was a need for a White Paper on health insurance.