Pat Deering (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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676. To ask the Minister for Health if he will introduce an independent appeals mechanism to address failure to agree necessary fee for nursing home care with national treatment purchase fund [25694/13]

Kathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)
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In order to be an ‘approved nursing home’ for the purposes of the Nursing Homes Support Scheme, all private and voluntary nursing homes must negotiate and agree a price for the cost of care with the National Treatment Purchase Fund (NTPF). This is a necessary feature of the Scheme due to the commitment by the State to meet the full balance of the cost of care over and above a person's contribution. The NTPF has statutory independence in the performance of this function and, in carrying it out, it must ensure value for money for both the individual and the State. If price negotiations break down a three stage review process, developed by the NTPF, can be invoked. Details of the process are set out on the NTPF website.

When the Nursing Homes Support Scheme commenced in October, 2009, a commitment was made that it would be reviewed after three years. The reason for allowing this period to elapse is to ensure that trends and statistics will be available in order to inform the work. The Terms of Reference for the review of the Scheme include an examination of the overall cost of long-term residential care in public and private nursing homes and the effectiveness of the current methods of negotiating/setting prices. The Deputy will be aware that a public consultation to inform the review was concluded and a summary report of the submissions received was published on the Department's website in December 2012. Work will continue on the review in the coming months and the Department will shortly be seeking tenders through the public procurement process for external input to this review. It is envisaged that the review will be completed by end 2013- early 2014. As the Scheme is statutory based, the implementation of any recommendations arising from the review may require significant amendments to the Nursing Homes Support Scheme Act, 2009.