Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 25 April 2013

Public Accounts Committee

2011 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General and Appropriation Accounts
Vote 40 - Health Service Executive
Health Service Executive Financial Statements 2011

11:40 am

Mr. Tony O'Brien:

The Deputy is referring to a process known as decoupling. If there was no requirement for a consultant's signature on the form the interval would relate only to the in-hospital processing, which is currently 44 days, and we believe we can reduce that figure to 21 days by the end of the year with electronic claims processing.