Frank Feighan (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 178: To ask the Minister for Health and Children when it is envisaged that eligible patients entitled to refund as a result of illegal nursing home charges will have their claims settled; when relatives of deceased patients who were illegally charged nursing home fees will receive their refund; if the Health Service Executive retain interest of all repayments; the rate in relation to same; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22077/07]

Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald.

The scheme is progressing as speedily as possible and every effort is being made to complete repayments. The HSE has indicated that the delays in making repayments under the scheme have been due to legal and technical issues. Firstly, over 13,400 estates who lodged claims to date had not extracted a grant of representation in respect of the estate of the deceased patient. In these instances the person entitled to extract the grant of representation has to be identified before an application can be processed and to date over 6,500 certificates of entitlement permitting individuals to apply for a repayment have issued.

Secondly, there has been a high incidence of claimants providing insufficient information and these claims have taken longer to process as the scheme administrator must be provided with certain information in order to ensure that the correct person and correct amount is repaid.

Thirdly, it has been necessary for the scheme administrator to visit over 330 HSE facilities to scan records which form the basis for the calculation of repayments. The format in which this information is held varies widely between institutions and usually includes a mixture of paper files, handwritten files and computer files.

Priority had been given to repaying living applicants as they were most immediately affected but repayments to estates have now commenced. A two year timeframe has been allotted to the Scheme and the HSE and the scheme administrator are confident that all claims submitted by the public, including those submitted by the relatives of deceased patients will be processed within that timeframe.

The total repayment amount will include both the actual charges paid and an amount to take account of inflation by reference to the Consumer Price Index since the time the person was wrongly charged.