Galway hospitals owed almost €8m by health insurers

Cash-strapped Galway University Hospitals is owed more than €7.8 million by private health insurers because consultants won’t sign off on paperwork.

The Galway City Tribune can reveal that Merlin Park Hospital and University Hospital Galway (UHG) are owed a total of €7.890 million by private health insurers.

Nationally, according to new Health Service Executive (HSE) figures, more than €70 million is owing to all hospitals across the country at a time when the health service is facing a budget deficit of €63 million.

GUH, which includes the two city public hospitals, has the highest level of health insurance claims in the country that are awaiting payment as of March 31 of this year.

The next ‘worst’ offenders in terms of insurance claims owing to hospitals is University Hospital Limerick (€6.3 million) and St James’ Hospital (€5.7 million).

The figures show that almost €1m is owing to Portiuncula Hospital in Ballinasloe (€981,843), while Mayo General Hospital is owed almost €1.4 million and Roscommon General Hospital is owed €71,908.

Chairperson of the West Regional Health Forum, City Councillor Pádraig Conneely (Fine Gael), slammed consultants for being slow to sign off on the necessary paperwork that would allow insurance companies to ‘cough up’.

Councillor Conneely, who has consistently highlighted this issue, said it was scandalous that highly-paid doctors at Galway’s two public hospitals continue to ‘drag their heels’ on paperwork.

Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly said: “The matter of the amounts owed by private insurance companies is monitored on an ongoing basis and is the subject of ongoing discussions between the HSE and the private insurers.

“In recent years the HSE has introduced a number of initiatives to improve the claims collection process and facilitate faster submission of claims to accelerate income collection within the public hospital system. In particular the HSE has tasked hospitals with bringing down the value of claims awaiting consultant action and targeting the highest value claims.

“The HSE has agreed proposals with the two consultant representative bodies committing consultants to expeditious processing and signing of claims for submission to the private insurers,” said Minister Reilly.

He said that the speed of HSE claims submissions has “improved” and that a backlog in claims relating to 2012 and 2013, which amounted to about €28 million has also been cleared.

In addition, he said: “A national electronic claims management handling system over 77% of value of claims was live in 24 hospitals in December 2013. A further 23 hospitals will go live this year. National income reporting was refined and is being further developed to include hospital group reporting.”

Minister Reilly said the introduction of electronic claims management system would “streamline” the claims collection process and will ensure that standardised work practices are implemented across all hospitals.

The total amount owed to all hospitals in the country as of March 31, 2014 was €70.1 million; while at the same time the HSE nationally is reporting a €63 million hole in its annual budget, and hospitals, including in Galway, are facing further cutbacks.