VHI to refund €423,000 to members

UP TO 11,500 VHI members are to be repaid a total of €423,000 after it emerged the company hadn’t fully refunded customers for treatments.

The VHI has ordered Arthur Cox Solicitors to complete an independent review into how the underpayments were made and why they weren’t addressed.

Yesterday, it began issuing repayments, with interest, to patients on Plans A and B and Option A and B, who spent time at the Mater Private and Blackrock Clinic in Dublin.

While the average repayment is estimated at €37 by VHI, some patients will receive up to €1,600.

The underpayments were revealed after the Health Insurance Authority (HIA) completed a review last year of the contracts being sold by VHI Healthcare and BUPA Ireland as well as contracts by VIVAS Health.

An anomaly came to light and they contacted VHI, which later confirmed that a small number of customers using Plans A and A Option had not been fully reimbursed for money spent on medical treatments between 1996 and 2004.

By law, a minimum amount of each treatment cost must be refunded to patients with insurance.

The HIA expressed concern at the non-compliance with the regulations and the fact that no arrangements had been put in place to reimburse patients.

VHI later contacted the HIA and informed them that its internal review had revealed insufficient refunds were also made to patients on Plans B and B Option between 1996 and 2000.

VHI Healthcare yesterday said the failure to make minimum repayments was a serious error and apologised to customers.

VHI chief executive Vincent Sheridan said: “This is an error which should not have occurred. While the amounts involved are small relative to the total claims payments made over the period, I regard this as a serious error and have taken appropriate action to rectify it.”

Copies of the Arthur Cox independent report will be made available to the Department of Health and the HIA.