Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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756. To ask the Minister for Health his views regarding a situation whereby privately insured persons attend public hospitals for treatment and are charged privately through their health insurance, and where the State also pays the hospitals for the same treatment carried out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37864/15]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Health Act 1970 (as amended) provides that all persons ordinarily resident in the country are entitled, subject to certain charges, to public in-patient hospital services and to public out-patient hospital services. For persons availing of public in-patient services, the current public hospital statutory in-patient charge is €75 per night, subject to a maximum of €750 in any twelve consecutive months.

Section 55 provides that the HSE may provide private in-patient services to persons who are not entitled to, or who do not have or have waived eligibility to public in-patient services. An essential element of the eligibility arrangements is that the public or private status of a patient must be specified on admission to hospital. Section 55 also provides for the charging of private in-patients. Where a patient elects to be treated privately by a consultant the hospital must treat that patient as a private patient. Persons who opt to be private on admission to hospital are liable for the fees of all consultants involved in his or her care and for hospital charges under Section 55 for that episode of care. The hospital charge applicable depend on the hospital treating the patient and on whether a person is accommodated in a single or multiple occupancy room or on a day case basis. The application of a charge by a hospital for in-patient services is obligatory under the legislation, irrespective of whether the patient occupies a public designated bed or private designated bed, as it relates to the private service provided.

Should a patient consider that a charge by a hospital for in-patient services has been inappropriately applied, the patient should in the first instance address those concerns to the private health insurer who will address the matter with the hospital concerned.