‘Slow doctors and insurers hold up €290m owed to public hospitals’

PUBLIC hospitals are owed almost €300million by health insurers for treating patients, the State’s spending watchdog has revealed.

The delayed payment is more of a problem for hospital budgets than the numbers of patients who give false names and addresses to dodge the €100 A&E fee.

Séamus McCarthy, the Comptroller & Auditor General, found the main health insurers owed the State €290million for patient treatment in hospitals last year.

Although the problem happens every year, insurers were not always to blame as consultants were found to be slow at signing off claim forms for patient care.

The C&AG warned: ‘Timeliness of sign-off by consultants varies greatly by hospital, ranging from a high of 163 days to a low of 15 days at December 2014.’

Hospital consultants are obliged to complete the forms within 30 days yet the average wait for the senior doctors to sign was virtually double, at 58 days.

The delay by senior medics was as high as 68 days in HSE hospitals and 47 days on average in voluntary hospitals, according to the C&AG audit. Both were above the 30-day limit.

Some €172million was owed to HSE hospitals and €118million to voluntary-run hos- pitals at the end of 2014 – accounting for the €290million overall sum.

The C&AG also reported there was unnecessary uncertainty in hospitals about the new charging regime f or private patients.

Mr McCarthy said: ‘Delays in collecting income due from private health insurers means that the Exchequer is effectively meeting the funding gap at hospitals until payment is made.’

Around 95 per cent of the income from private patients is recovered from insurers. Hospitals claim amounts due directly from the insurer instead of getting payment from the patient who would then seek reimbursement from the insurer.