Nursing home scheme accountants and solicitors collect €5m a year

THE accountants and solicitors tasked with administering a scheme to repay those wrongly charged for nursing home care have been paid almost €5 million a year for the past three years.

KPMG accountants and McCann Fitzgerald solicitors were appointed in 2006 to administer the scheme which the Government estimates will cost the Exchequer€465 million, including overheads estimated at €27m.

When Health Minister Mary Harney launched the scheme in 2006, she said she understood that a “significant proportion” of the repayments would be made before the end of 2006, and the balance in 2007 and 2008. By the end of 2009, €448m had been allocated to the scheme and the HSE estimates that additional funding of €17m will be required in 2010.

So far, 35,330 applications have been made under the scheme, of which 19,850 claims will result in payments, according to Ms Harney. This means approximately 15,000 applicants will be refused.

Labour Party TD Sean Sherlock, who raised theissue of costs in the Dáil, was told in a written reply this month, since the scheme commenced in August 2006, a total of €14.5m, including VAT, had been paid to KPMG/McCann Fitzgerald.

Mr Sherlock said he was unhappy with the high level of refusal – which amounts to 42% of all applications made.

“With that level of rejection it would make sense for a portion of refusals to be submitted to an independent arbitrator to ensure that there isn’t an unduly high number of applicants being turned down,” Mr Sherlock said.

Applicants can appeal against a decision of the scheme administrator within 28 days of receiving the decision.

Mr Sherlock also called for the introduction of a “sunset clause” which would ensure the scheme did not run indefinitely.

A statement from the Department of Health said the majority of those rejected “relate to applications which are outside the parameters of the scheme, for instance, the patient on whose behalf the application was made did not reside in a publicly-funded long-stay facility or the patient on whose behalf the application was made died prior to December 9, 1998”, the starting point for applications under the scheme.

The department also said a vast number of estates which have lodged claims did not have the legal authority to do so. It added an outside company had been contracted to administer the scheme “in view of the nature, volume and complexity of the repayments”.

The scheme is designed to refund patients illegally charged for publicly-funded long-stay care; patients in publicly contracted beds in private nursing homes; and patients in receipt of inpatient services in community based facilities. It was initially costed at €1 billion.