Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 19 Nov 2003

Vol. 574 No. 5

Written Answers. - Drugs Payment Scheme.

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin

Question:

152 Ms B. Moynihan-Cronin asked the Minister for Health and Children the number of people who have applied for refunds of sums that they were overcharged under the drugs refund scheme by the closing date of 31 October 2003; the total amount claimed in refunds; the proportion of the overall amount overcharged that it represents; if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties created for some applicants by the requirement to produce receipts; if he will use health board and pharmacist records to identify those who may have been overcharged but who have not been able to apply for a refund to ensure that all such overcharged sums are repaid; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27561/03]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

The general medical services payments board is the body charged with operating the scheme on behalf of the Department to process applications from persons who may be eligible for a refund due to a delay in putting the drugs payment scheme, or DPS, on a statutory basis. As of 31 October 2003, the deadline for claim submission, the board had received more than 36,000 claims, which are currently being processed. All claims received by the deadline of 31 October 2003 will be processed and paid by the end of December. The final cost and the numbers qualifying for reimbursement will not be known until all applications have been processed.

The GMS payments board agreed with the Irish Pharmaceutical Union, or IPU, the data required to support refund claims, and claimants were advised of that process. The payments board has informed the Department that individual pharmacists have been most helpful and accommodating to their clients in supplying the information requested. I have agreed that, while the deadline has not been extended, the GMS payments board will deal sympathetically with individual claims where people have difficulty obtaining the necessary information to make a claim.

It was necessary for members of the public to accompany their claim for a refund with supporting documentation – original receipts or a printout from a pharmacy – as those data are not already available to the GMS payments board in all cases. While a significant amount of the data is already available to the board, a certain degree of verification is required for the following reasons. First, for claimants whose drugs expenditure was under the old DPS threshold of £42, the position is as follows. Under that threshold the individual, or family, paid the pharmacist in full. As the pharmacists were not claiming any refund from the board, they did not submit those details. Therefore, no records of those transactions are recorded in the board's database, and those must be provided by either the claimant or pharmacist. Where the claimant may not have relevant receipts, pharmacists are providing copies of Med 1 forms with the necessary level of detail.

Secondly, for claimants who paid over the £42 threshold, and where the details of their transactions were supplied to the GMS payments board, it was felt that, to ensure the accuracy of the data for any month, the board would have to seek further information from the claimants. That might arise if there is a discrepancy between pharmacy records and those of the board. Those claimants have therefore been asked to complete a claim form. Thirdly, the address details supplied on the claim form will also allow the board to verify the current address of the claimant allowing for the fact that some persons may have moved in the four years since the inception of the scheme.

Finally, I would like to reassure members of the public that the GMS payments board is working with claimants and individual pharmacists to deal with any problems which may arise.