HSE deals with 300k medical card applications

MORE than 300,000 medical card applications and reviews have been processed since July, with a new centralised office receiving more than 4,000 enquires a day.

The HSE’s Primary Care Reimbursement Scheme now runs a single uniform system for processing medical cards.

The changeover — in line with the Croke Park Agreement — was designed to ensure a better and faster system for processing medical cards. It does not affect how clients apply for a medical card, but rather gives people more options as to how they can apply for and, later, get further information on, their medical card.

The new medical card processing office at PCRS has:

* Processed 953,873 medical card applications and reviews and issued 708,832 medical cards on foot of these applications since the centralisation process began;

* Dealt with an average of 3,977 telephone calls each day;

* Received 308,336 applications and reviews since centralisation was finalised in July 2011. These are being processed at a rate of approximately 20,000 per week;

* Answered and dealt with 79,548 telephone enquiries from medical card clients last month;

* Received and dealt with more than 2,700 representations from public representatives. 71% of those representations were responded to within 48 hours, a further 15% within five working days.

Currently, more than 85% of all complete applications are processed in 15 working days.

A dedicated website, medicalcard.ie, provides an easily accessible source of information for members of the public to track the progress of their applications.

Updates on a medical card applications are also provided via text messages and an information line, 1850 252 919.