Private patients ‘fraudulently billed’ for beds

Private patients who spend time on chairs and trolleys in public hospitals are being fraudulently billed for use of private beds, according to outspoken eye surgeon, Prof Michael O’Keefe.

He said it was “commonplace” for private patients to be admitted to public beds but for the hospital to bill the insurer for private care regardless. The consultant ophthalmologist, who works in the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said hospitals were doing this because they were “desperate for money”.

He also claimed hospitals were engaged in retrospective billing, with consultants expected to recollect whether patients treated years previously had been public or private.