HUNDREDS OF older people or their families who were illegally charged for public nursing home beds have successfully appealed the size of the awards given to them.
The repayment scheme, which refunds those charged despite having medical card entitlement to free care, is now set to cost the State upwards of €365 million. The charges continued over a 30-year period from the mid-1970s until 2004.
New figures show that more than 500 older people or their families received increased offers from the State after appealing against the amounts they were awarded. The average award paid out has been just over €18,000.
The cost of the repayments scheme has put additional pressure on already over-stretched public finances. A year ago, the Government agreed to provide €77 million in supplementary funding to the HSE to cover the revised cost of the fees. Payment for almost 1,000 claims had been put on hold because of a lack of funding.
Out of a total of 35,000 applications, just under 20,000 were accepted as valid under the terms of the repayment scheme. Of those claims, about 9,000 refer to living residents while the remainder apply to the estates of deceased patients.
Latest figures show that just under 4,000 recipients appealed the size of the award. A total of 508 were given increased awards following a determination by the health repayment scheme appeals office.
The overall repayment scheme was administered by the HSE, in conjunction with KPMG and McCann Fitzgerald.
Officials say the scheme has taken so long to administer because of “deficiencies” in claims forms which had to be rectified before they could be processed.
Two-thirds of the applications failed to provide critical information and the administrator had to write to the claimant seeking that information.
In more than 13,400 of the cases, the scheme administrator had to establish probate before the claim could be processed.
The repayment legislation sought to ensure that the applicant “would be the rightful recipient of any potential repayment”, as often several family members may have made an application under the scheme.
