Hospital charges must match care, says group
The VHI was severely criticised this week for allowing private hospitals to charge €6,000-plus for care regardless of whether patients were kept in for one day or 12.
“We understand that these kind of prices were set about five years ago and they haven’t changed,” said Stephen McMahon, chairperson of the Irish Patients’ Association.
The issue sparked a major debate on RTÉ’s Liveline this week. The programme received so many calls on the issue that another telephone line had to be installed.
Attention focused on the ‘average-stay’ hospital charge for an operation to clear blocked vessels around the heart.
One caller said she was outraged that her father was charged 6,721 for an overnight stay in a semi-private ward in Dublin’s Mater Private last May.
Mr McMahon said the price no longer reflected advances made in this type of surgery. Nowadays, he said, it was possible for people to be discharged a day after having the procedure.
“It is the hospitals and not the people who are reaping the benefit of these advances and that’s not right,” he pointed out.
VHI medical director, Dr Bernadette Carr, pointed out that the 6,000-plus hospital charge included the use of the operating theatre, technicians, monitoring, drugs and the stay in hospital.
The pre-agreed charge is based on an average stay of between one and six nights but would be the same even if the patients was hospitalised for up to 12 days.
Mr McMahon accepted that productivity must be rewarded but it must also be reasonable. He also realised that it was also complex pricing structure but, at the same time, there must be transparent billing so that they can see what they are being charged for.
He also warned patients not to sign the discharge form until they are leaving the hospital. Some hospitals still asked patients to sign the form before receiving treatment. That was like signing a blank cheque, he added.
BUPA director of provider affairs Ann Brockhaven said private health care was expensive in Ireland because there was not enough competition and not enough doctors.
In Spain and Germany, where there are large numbers of doctors, the cost of seeing a consultant is around 15, compared to Ireland where a consultant’s fee can be as much as €250.
“Competition will prove that you can bring quality up and prices down,” she insisted.
