Patients face extra charge for anaesthetic

PATIENTS given an anaesthetic at the Bon Secours hospital in Cork are being charged additional fees by consultants on top of their private health insurance fees.

Anaesthetists at the private hospital have blamed the top-up or balance billing on rising levels of medical litigation which they claim pushes up their own medical indemnity costs.

In an information letter sent out by the anaesthetic department this month to patients with private health insurance, consultants warn reimbursement fees paid by VHI, Vivas and Quinn Healthcare are “unlikely to cover the full fee and you will be responsible for the shortfall”.

The consultants blame their higher fees on medical indemnity costs which come in at approximately €20,000 per annum.

“Unlike consultant anaesthetists working in the public hospitals, whose medical indemnity is paid by the State, consultant anaesthetists at the Bons Secours Hospital, Cork, are obliged to fund this premium from private income,” the letter says.

According to the consultants, the medical indemnity premium increases of the last few years “have been far in excess of the approximate 3% rise in VHI, Vivas and Quinn Healthcare benefits”.

However, a VHI healthcare spokesperson said there were just five anaesthetists in the country not participating in their full cover scheme “all of whom are based in the Bon Secours Cork”.

Under this scheme, consultants receive a higher fee from the VHI in return for a commitment not to send balance or top-up bills to the patient. The offer to participate in the full cover agreement is made to each individual consultant and it is then up to the consultant whether to accept or reject it. The VHI spokesperson said last night that the number of consultants participating in the VHI Healthcare’s full cover agreement is “at an all time high with 99% participating”.

She added that consultant participation in the full cover agreement “gives our members peace of mind at a time of stress from illness as, if they attend a participating consultant, they have a guarantee that there will be no additional balance bill for their professional services for in-patient hospital care”.

This is the 18th year of the VHI Healthcare Full Cover Agreement, which is entered into for a two-year period. The last agreement commenced on July 1, 2007, and will run to June 30, 2009.