Hospital consultants summoned to meeting on fees deals

HOSPITAL consultants have been summoned to a meeting with officials from the Competition Authority next week to discuss the deals which fix the fees for procedures between consultants and VHI and BUPA.

The meeting could mark the beginning of the end of existing payment procedures under which private in-patients are not billed directly for treatment they receive.

Irish Hospital Consultant Association (IHCA) secretary general Finbarr Fitzpatrick confirmed IHCA representatives would be attending meetings with authority officials next Wednesday. “If the Competition Authority says the discussions we have with VHI and BUPA are in breach of competition law we will have to discontinue them,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.

“We don’t want to be in breach of the law,” he added. However, Mr Fitzpatrick said the alternative would require a return to direct payments, which could end up costing the patient more.

“In that case the fees would probably be higher as the likelihood is the consultant would have to double-bill the patient and this would cost more in overheads,” he explained. While the Competition Authority would not comment on the ongoing investigation, it has questioned the arrangement as resembling price fixing and as being anti-competitive.

“The Competition Authority is examining the process by which consultants discuss fees with private health insurers,” a spokesperson said.

The IHCA denies it has any fixed-price deal in place with the health insurers and says agreements are drawn up on an individual basis between consultants and the insurers. “We don’t have a deal with any insurance company; the agreement is with each individual consultant, not the IHCA,” said Mr Fitzpatrick.

It is not clear whether the VHI, BUPA or the Irish Medical Organisation have been summoned to meetings.

However, a spokesperson for the VHI confirmed the Competition Authority was “in correspondence”.

An average of €200 million is paid in fees to all doctors annually for procedures carried out on VHI customers.

This includes services by GPs and others who contract their clinical services to the insurer.