Doctor charges that make the blood boil
Galway medical card holders who were charged €20 to have their bloods taken by their General Practitioners have been advised by the HSE to apply for refunds.
The latest regional health forum west heard that it was “wrong” for patients with medical cards to be charged by GPs who receive capitation payments from the state to treat medical card holders.
Galway City Councillor Pádraig Conneely said it was disgraceful that GPs, who were in receipt of hefty capitation fees, were charging medical card holders to have their bloods taken.
Cllr Conneely’s blood was boiling as he said one Galway doctor, who received in excess of €400,000 from the state in capitation fees over the past two years, had signs up in his practice that advertised a €20 charge for taking bloods for medical card holders.
“This is wrong; the doctor is already paid to take bloods through capitation fees. It is wrong that the patient is then charged €20 in this instance and in another case I have heard it is €10. And what do they do then when they take the bloods? They tell the patient to bring it up to the hospital for testing. This is happening,” said Cllr Conneely.
Cllr Conneely made the comments after the HSE supplied him with information showing that GPs in Galway shared in almost €27 million in capitation fees last year.
He was given a full list of the Galway city and county doctors, and the amounts they each received in capitation fees last year and the year before. He noted that some doctors were getting over €100,000 and a handful in excess of €200,000 in capitation fees in a year.
The acting area manager for HSE West, Bernard Gloster, explained that capitation fees are paid to GPs in respect of medical card holders. They are paid regardless of how often the patient with the medical card visits the doctor.
He said that where the taking of bloods, “forms part of the investigation and necessary treatment of a patient’s symptoms or condition by the patient’s GP, the service should be provided free of charge where the patient is a medical card holder or GP visit card holder.”
Mr Gloster said that the HSE believes blood tests should be provided free of charge by GPs to medical card holders but he said some doctors take a different view of GP contracts with the State and believe that they should charge extra due to the additional incurred cost of taking bloods.
He advised anyone with a medical card who feels they were wrongly charged for having bloods taken, to complain to the PCRS (Primary Care Reimbursement Service), and the HSE and the doctor can sort it out.
The PCRS can be contacted on (01) 864 7100.