Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2014
1059. Deputy Patrick O'Donovan asked the Minister for Health the reason medical card holders are being reviewed within months of receiving their medical cards; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13313/14]
View answerAll medical card and GP visit card holders are subject to a periodic review of eligibility to determine continuing eligibility.
Ordinarily, three months before an individual’s existing medical card/GP visit card eligibility expiry date, a review notification issues to the individual (or their parents, in the case of a child).
A reminder letter is issued a month later if the requested review form details have not been received at that point. If a person does not return their review form within the time specified, their continuing eligibility cannot be confirmed and their medical card/GP visit card cannot be reissued. In these circumstances, or where the review process establishes that a person no longer holds eligibility, the eligibility ceases.
Persons are requested to return their completed review forms, at least one month in advance of the due expiry date of their existing eligibility in order to give the HSE sufficient time to carry out the review and/or to get back to the person if the application is incomplete or requires any further details to be provided.
A person (and their dependants, if it applies), the subject of a medical card/GP visit card eligibility review assessment, will continue to have their eligibility extended pending the outcome of a review assessment, provided:
1. they have returned their review form within the time specified, and
2. are engaging with the HSE in enabling their review assessment to complete.
Outside of the date period three months prior to the expiry date of a person’s current approved eligibility, the HSE reserves the right, when appropriate, to undertake a review at any other time to confirm a person’s eligibility. Instances where such reviews might be occasioned include but are not confined to: following on from a change to the schemes qualifying eligibility criteria, notified changes to a person’s circumstances that may affect continuing eligibility, random reviews asking that a card holder confirm ‘ordinary residence’ in Ireland.
Approximately 10,000 letters are issued each month to cardholders asking that they sign and return to the HSE a Declaration of Residency form. On receipt of this Declaration, eligibility to the GMS Scheme continues. If a person does not return the Declaration of Residency form, their eligibility ceases.
The Health (Alteration of Criteria for Eligibility) (No. 2) Act 2013 with effect from 18th December 2013 provides for the reduction in the Persons age 70 or older medical card income qualifying thresholds to €500 gross income per week for a single person and €900 gross income per week for a couple. The HSE is required to identify those persons who no longer have full eligibility as a result of this change and in place of the medical card issue a GP visit card to those with gross income up to €700 (single person) /€1,400 (couple) per week. Those persons aged 70 or older with gross income above €700/€1,400 per week will have no eligibility to either a medical card or a GP Visit Card. This assessment review process has commenced and 6,000 review letters have been issued to customers.
The HSE is now completing medical card reviews for approximately 86,000 individuals per month. It is expected that increased data sharing between Revenue, Department of Social Protection and the HSE has the potential to further reduce the level of documents and information required from families as their eligibility status is reviewed.
