Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 November 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2012 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General
Chapter 22 - Eligibility for Medical Cards

12:10 pm

Mr. Patrick Burke:

When we centralised, we had an opportunity to link in and strengthen the controls around administration. Therefore, we now link in death events automatically. We also identify any individuals on the register who may have been granted eligibility for an extended length of time and we have reviewed all of those. Where we found somebody was on the register, but found no activity over a period with a general practitioner, pharmacist, dentist, optician or whatever - there is extensive data at the back of the register in the context of reimbursement - we wrote to those people to establish whether they are still resident. If on foot of a number of pieces of correspondence the person did not make contact, we ended his or her eligibility. We have a safety blanket in the process so that if one of those individuals is fit and well and goes to the GP, he or she can be reinstated. Does this answer the question?

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