Patients organisations have called on the Government to investigate the non-compliant records of US health companies before allowing them to operate Government contracts.
Representatives of Patients Together, the Health Services Action Group and Co-operating for Cancer Care North West, said the US had recovered large sums of money from some healthcare corporations operating in Ireland or providing services to Ireland.
They called for a halt to co-location and to outsourcing cancer treatment and testing to corporations with a history of claims.
Marie O'Connor, author and PRO for the Health Services Action Group, said the Government needed to clarify whether having a history of settlements in another country disqualified a company from being awarded a State contract.
The group highlighted Quest Diagnostics, which has a contract with the Health Service Executive (HSE) to test Irish cervical cancer smears in labs in Texas and Chicago. It settled a number of claims since 1996 under the US False Claims Act, including one for charging federal healthcare programmes for medically unnecessary tests in 2004, settled for $11.35 million (€8.4 million).
A second claim, in 2001, involved knowingly filing claims with an improper carrier to obtain higher reimbursement and was settled for $352,926.
The group also highlighted UPMC (University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre Health System), which operates the UPMC Whitfield Cancer Centre in Waterford and the Beacon Hospital Cancer Centre in Dublin.
In February, it signed an agreement with the HSE to provide radiation treatment to public cancer patients in its Waterford centre. In 2002, UPMC agreed to pay more than $1.5 million for unlawfully charging government insurers and federal healthcare programmes for cardiac surgery using experimental devices.
In 1998, along with the University of Pittsburgh school of medicine and the University of Pittsburgh, it paid $14 million for false or improper billing to the Medicaid programme and $3 million for false or improper billing to the Medicare programme.
Triad, which runs the Beacon Hospital in Sandyford, was also highlighted. It bought 42 hospitals from HCA/Columbia, which paid $1.7 billion in settlements with the US government. Triad said it had no connection with HCA/Columbia, it was not one of its spin-off companies and it did not share governance with it.
A spokeswoman for Quest Diagnostics said past claims had "nothing at all" to do with its work for the Government and the women of Ireland.
Michael Costello, managing director of UPMC Ireland, said the company had never been charged or convicted. Settlements with the US government were based on differences in the interpretation of claims regulations. "The federal government wouldn't continue to send patients to us if they had any doubts," he said.
A HSE spokesman said it was satisfied with the status of the relevant US companies. Each had a responsibility to report any actions being taken against it which prohibited it from providing the services. "The HSE has satisfied itself that there are no such actions current in relation to these particular companies."
