Written answers

Thursday, 30 April 2009

Department of Health and Children

Nursing Homes Repayment Scheme

5:00 pm

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 108: To ask the Minister for Health and Children further to Parliamentary Question No. 174 of 10 July 2008, the number of applications received under the nursing home repayment scheme from applicants with an intellectual disability or their representatives; the number of such applications which were submitted by Health Service Executive staff; the number of these applications approved to date; the number on hand; the number who have appealed the offer made to them; the success rate of same; the number who have appealed the rejection of their application; the success rate; the procedure employed to have an offer accepted or reviewed when HSE staff made the original application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17242/09]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Fine Gael)
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Question 109: To ask the Minister for Health and Children the number of applications received under the nursing home repayment scheme from elderly applicants with no next of kin; the number of such applications which were submitted by Health Service Executive staff; the number of these applications approved to date; the number on hand; the number who have appealed the offer made to them; the success rate of same; the number who have appealed the rejection of their application; the success rate; the procedure employed to have an offer accepted or reviewed when HSE staff made the original application; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17243/09]

Photo of Mary HarneyMary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 108 and 109 together.

The Health Service Executive (HSE) has responsibility for administering the health repayment scheme in conjunction with the appointed scheme administrator KPMG-McCann Fitzgerald. The Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006 provides a clear legal framework to repay recoverable health charges for publicly funded long term residential care. Recoverable health charges are charges which were imposed on persons with full eligibility under the Health (Charges for In-patient Services) Regulations 1976 as amended in 1987 or charges for in-patient services only, raised under the Institutional Assistance Regulations 1954 as amended in 1965. All applications received under the scheme are processed within this legal framework and specific details on certain cohorts of applicants, such as those outlined by the Deputy are not currently available. However, in terms of the overall scheme over 39,500 applications have been received, 7,600 of which were submitted by the HSE on behalf of patients. Approximately 7,100 HSE claims have been concluded, 500 HSE claims remain to be concluded and approximately 1,100 HSE claims have been appealed.

The procedure employed to have an offer accepted or reviewed when HSE staff make an application is in accordance with the legislative provisions of the Act. If the applicant disagrees with the repayment amount offered an appeal is lodged under section 16 of the Act which provides for the process for those who wish to appeal the decision of the Scheme Administrator. When HSE staff accept an offer of repayment on behalf of a patient, the repayment is made directly to the relevant patient private property account. The Health Repayment Scheme Appeals Office is an independent office established to provide an appeals service to those who wish to appeal the decision of the Scheme Administrator under the Health (Repayment Scheme) Act 2006.

Up to the 24 April 2009, the Health Repayment Scheme Appeals Office has received 1,552 completed appeal forms from all claimants who had received an offer from the Scheme Administrator. Decisions have been made in 764 of these appeals and 331 of these decisions have disagreed with the amounts offered by the Scheme Administrator. Up to the 24 April 2009, the Health Repayment Scheme Appeals Office has received 3,997 completed appeal forms from all claimants whose claim had been rejected by the Scheme Administrator. Decisions have been made in 2,449 of these appeals and 276 of these decisions have disagreed with the decision of the Scheme Administrator. The HSE has informed my Department that up to the 17 April 17,076 payments totalling over €376m have issued while over 20,000 offers of repayment totalling over €396m have been made. Approximately 700 claims are currently outstanding and these claims are being concluded on a daily basis.

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