Insurer warns patients to hold out for private bed amid HSE changes
PATIENTS should not declare their health insurance unless hospitals can guarantee private beds, according to an insurance expert, as the full extent of new charges becomes clear.
The Department of Health set charges for private patients treated in public hospitals in January. But detailed guidelines were only recently given to hospitals. Industry sources say there is confusion about the increasingly blurred line between public and private beds. The guidelines say fees must be charged even if patients are admitted through A&E or to the Intensive Care Unit.
Public fees are €75 nightly to a maximum of €750 annually, so lower than the insurers’ bill of €813 per night, or up to €1,000 for a room. Patients typically sign an admittance form which asks for insurance details. In the past insurers could only be charged if their customers stayed in a designated private bed. But guidelines now say patients on ‘equipment other than a bed, such as a therapy chair, recliner or trolley’ must be charged.
Describing this as ‘outrageous’ Dermot Goode of Total Health Cover said: ‘They are being told to charge for everyone. If you are admitted through the emergency department, you are a public patient. The question of health insurance should not come into it. When you are asked to tick that box for insurance, do not do it. Wait until you know you are getting a private room.’
He added: ‘Wards are now “multi-occupancy rooms”. You could have one person paying €813 on this bed, and someone else paying €75 on the next one.’
A HSE spokeswoman said: ‘To the best of the HSE’s knowledge no insurance companies were or should have been charged for the use of any inappropriate type of bed.’
A VHI Healthcare spokesman said they are in talks with the HSE on the charges, while a spokeswoman for Aviva said they have been charged under the new system but would not give details. A spokesman for Minister Leo Varadkar said: ‘This measure should have little or no impact on premiums.’