Galway hospital owed €15m in health insurance

PRIVATE health insurance companies owe over €15 million to Galway University Hospital, according to new figures released by the Health Service Executive (HSE).

The HSE has confirmed that €10.260m is owed for less than 12 months for work carried out on private patients in public hospitals while €4.853m concerns payments due over one year giving a total figure of €15,103 for money owed.

HSE Forum West chairman, Councillor Pádraig Conneely expressed his disappointment over the lack of progress reducing the amount of money owed to University College Hospital and Merlin Park for private work completed in its theatres.

Speaking at a recent HSE West Forum meeting, Councillor Conneely asked why Galway University Hospital and the West Region hadn’t benefited from the national allocation of €125m to reduce the amount of money owed to hospitals.

The Galway City councillor recalled at a previous meeting he was told that one consultant was responsible for €496,000 in insurance fees owed to Galway University Hospital due to unsigned forms and wondered what was the highest figure owed by an individual consultant.

He asked the HSE if it is still taking no action against individual consultants who aren’t signing private health insurance forms in a timely fashion.

National assistant director of finance, Liam Minihan stated the HSE was still in negotiation with insurance companies concerning the national allocation of €125m but didn’t know how much Galway University Hospital would receive.

Acknowledging that major progress was not made tackling this problem in 2012, Mr Minihan predicted that under a new agreement, consultants would be expected to sign off on insurance forms within 14 days, which should result in a big improvement in the collection of private health insurance income.

After learning that the largest amount owed to an individual consultant was now €315,000, Councillor Conneely stressed it was wrong for well-paid public consultants who also had private clinics in the Bon Secours and other private clinics to leave insurance forms unsigned for long periods of time.

Galway University Hospital manager, Tony Canavan, acknowledged the amount of money owed to hospitals by private health companies was an issue in hospitals but noted a new system was now in place, which involved a monthly report to keep an ongoing review of this issue.

Mr Canavan said most consultants were committed to playing their part in improving the collection system and noted there was a process now in place to initiate individual meetings with consultants and hospital management in the event of a problem.