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Medical Card Delays

Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 4 March 2014

Tuesday, 4 March 2014

Questions (430)

Sandra McLellan

Question:

430. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Health if he will provide in tabular form the waiting times for medical card applications to be processed, including new applications, renewals, reviews and appeals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10593/14]

View answer

Written answers

The HSE Primary Care Reimbursement Service has received, in the period since the centralisation of medical card/GP visit card processing (July 2011) to date, a total of 1,226,150 medical card/GP visit card applications. This total includes both new applications and renewal/review applications. In this period, there has been an overall 98.93% completion rate for the total number of applications received. Of the total number of applications processed in the period since centralisation, 95.29% of these applications have been processed within 15 working days of the application being received by the HSE.

Applications that remain in process outside of this period of time are facilitated so that eligibility is either retained or assessment prioritised without delay to the applicant that is genuinely engaging with the process. These arrangements strive to minimise any hardship or distress on persons whose circumstances once assessed, qualify them for a medical card/GP visit card. The HSE will not cancel a person’s medical card/GP visit card in the period before a review assessment has finalised if that person is engaging with the HSE in response to a review assessment notification and is making genuine efforts to provide all necessary information and documentation. If a person is a new applicant presenting with an urgent medical need or an urgent medical need in respect of their dependant(s), the HSE will facilitate a prioritised assessment of eligibility once the applicant has provided all the information necessary.

The length of time it takes for medical card appeals to be processed may vary depending on the complexity of the appeal and the number of appeals already on hand. On average, during 2013 this time frame was 4-12 weeks. The Appeals Office is currently dealing with a backlog from late 2013 which has extended this time frame to over 12 weeks. That Office is working on the back log to return to the 4-12 weeks as quickly as possible.

It is important to note that many of these appeal cases are reviews of existing medical card holders and, in that instance, there is no immediate impact on clients as they continue to hold eligibility until the appeal decision is made.

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