Why doctors can’t claim for ‘ghost’ patients

I WISH to take issue with your report stating that “GP’s who claimed €1.8 million in payment for deceased or ghost medical card holders are unlikely to repay” (Irish Examiner, March 23).

Doctors do not ‘claim’ for deceased or ghost patients — it is impossible.

In order to explain this it is important to understand how a GP’s medical card payment is calculated, something your reporter should have done.