HSE loses out on €100m as patients waive private care

A CAMPAIGN by private health insurers telling customers not to sign forms saying they want to be treated as a fee-paying patient in a public hospital has cost the health service around €100m in lost income it emerged yesterday.

The massive drop in income for hard-pressed public hospitals from insured patients will see insurers pay around €500m this year.

Officials said the reduction is contributing to the HSE falling €700m into the red and needing another bailout in 2018.

The extent of the downturn in payments follows the campaign by insurers urging patients with health insurance being “targeted” by public hospitals when they are admitted.

They are being asked by hospitals to sign a waiver form, which means they give up their right to be treated as a public patient, although they are not in a private bed.

Their insurer gets charged up to €800 a night, instead of €80 a night.

Health officials Stephen Mulvaney and Colm Desmond said the HSE overrun is driven by a range of demand.

They said that while an assessment of compensation claims is difficult to forecast, the increasing cost of settlements is determined by the court system.

“The winter of 2018 was a very difficult one for our health services,” they said.

“During the month of February, we saw a 7.7pc increase in attendances and a 5pc increase in emergency department admissions compared to February 2017.”

In March, the HSE had to respond to the extreme weather of Storm Emma which led to Ireland struggling under feet of snow.

The annual HSE overrun has tripled in the space of a few years.

Fianna Fáil TD Stephen Donnelly said: “If it was a private company with that level of overrun every year the chief executive would be fired.”

He asked if any official had lost their job.

Mr Mulvaney said nobody had been dismissed or disciplined. Some performance notices may have been issued.