Health Insurance Claims

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 14 April 2016

Thursday, 14 April 2016

Ceisteanna (389)

Clare Daly

Ceist:

389. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health if he is aware of the practice employed by many medical consultants of charging public patients amounts of between €500 and €1,000 for a simple letter outlining the patient’s injuries for the purpose of claiming compensation, and that public patients are told that the money is charged in order for them to become temporary private patients, thus permitting the specialist to charge these large amounts of money; and to outline or investigate the extent of this practice [6425/16]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for Health

The Consultant Contract 2008 specifically provides in Section 21 (f) that "Professional medical/dental practice carried out for or on behalf of the Mental Health Commission, the Coroner, other Irish statutory bodies or medical education and training bodies shall not be regarded as private practice. In addition, the provision of expert medical opinion relating to insurance claims, preparation of reports for the Courts and Court attendance shall not be regarded as private practice."

The provision of such reports is outside of the consultants public obligations under the Consultants Contract 2008.