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THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION of General Practitioners has accused the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection of “manufacturing” the delays in paying out some illness benefits to get GPs to use the new benefit forms issued by the Department.
As previously reported by TheJournal.ie, people who receive an illness benefit from the State have been waiting weeks for payments which the Department said was down to GPs continuing to use old medical claim forms despite a system change over at the start of the month.
The NAGP issued a statement earlier today to say that it was with grave concern it learned of the Department of Social Protection’s (DSP) statement yesterday which suggested that GPs were to blame.
“The Department is stating that the delays in payments are due to GPs refusing to use the new forms. They are claiming that this is causing significant delays to our processing time”
“This is merely a tactic to bully GPs into changing work practice without mediation or negotiation. The Department is now attempting to use the public to strong-arm General Practice into submission.”
The DSP recently introduced a new claim form (IB1) and a new medical certificate (MED1) to replace the previous MC1 and MC2 forms for certification of the Department’s illness and injury benefit schemes.
It warned that payment delays will likely continue where old forms are used for certification.
Chris Goodey, CEO of the NAGP told TheJournal.ie that he believed the department is “trying to delay payments to patients and using patients, vulnerable patients as fodder” to get GPs to use the new forms.
“I don’t know of any other profession where someone would say ok we’re changing everything now, no training no nothing and giving you four days notice without any negotiation or conversation whatsoever.
It does not make any sense whatsoever. These are manufactured delays.
The NAGP has sad that on 17 August it received written agreement from the Department confirming entry into a process of mediation in order to iron out concerns in relation to the implementation and processes of the new illness certification forms.
It says the DSP withdrew their agreement to mediate without notice or reason.
Dr Stephen Murphy told TheJournal.ie that he first aware of the form changeover when he received the new forms in the post at the end of July.
“I’ve personally met with the Department twice, they had given us undertakings that they would accept old forms on an ongoing basis.
“I was there when the negotiator from the Department came out and we met and we went through all this, and the old forms were fine.
“They even said they would accept headed paper from GPs,” he said.
Murphy said that he does not understand why they cannot use the old system which “they promised they would” and that the statement they issued yesterday was a complete “180-degree turnaround from what they had said to us face to face not two weeks ago”.
Data Protection
Chris Goodey said that one of the main objections the association has with the new forms is the volume of additional patient information that is required to be given.
“The NAGP has not received confirmation from the Department as to who is classified as the Data Controller or who is the Data Processor.
“The NAGP were told that the software that the Department of Social Protection is planning to use had been funded by the HSE.
He continued that the association has “serious reservations about data capture, data control and where the data will eventually end up”.
The NAGP have asked the relevant and pertinent questions to which we have yet to receive satisfactory answers.
Goodey says that GPs are not in breach of their contract as they are still providing the older forms to patients who require them.
“If the Department is not willing to engage, GPs around the country may have no alternative but to individually decide to withdraw from their contract with the Department,” Goodey said.
‘Working very efficiently’
The Department said today that new system is “working very efficiently for GPs already using the new forms and their patients – our customers – are being paid their illness and injury benefits without delay”.
It added that it would not be in a position to accept old forms indefinitely as they are “not compatible with the new system and each requires significant manual inputting into the Department’s payment systems.
“This requires the Department to manage two parallel processes in order to continue to pay customers their benefits and is not sustainable.”
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The new form is a total joke and GP’s are experiencing difficulty rightly so. A transition period would have been an idea but hey what do employees know!!! The amount of people who have been left with no money is a joke!
Citizens are now called customers,the cheek of this government is never ending.
@@mdmak33: Would be better if they treated us like customers, instead of someone they’re doing a favour for – which seems to be general mentality in the PS. Anyway customers have choices, “citizens” don’t. That’s large part of the problem.
@Damon16: Well no, when the public are citizens, the government and it’s departments are servants of those citizens, the power is with the citizen, if the public are mere customers, the government becomes a business owner, it’s departments become businesses. The customer has much less power, the market doesn’t apply as there is no alternative business to frequent, they have the power. It is evident in the slow painful demise of many state services, health being a good example, when the state business collapses because of underfunding, becoming bankrupt the only choice is the private health market, where of you can’t pay, you don’t get served.
@Michael Wall: The problem with the health system is not that the state funds it, its that it runs it! A big inefficient state quango running something as complex as a healthcare system is bound to be a failure – and it is! We could organize a system where a healthcare is publicly funded by operated by private/independent providers – i.e providing choice. This works well in other places like Switzerland, Japan, Netherlands and even Sweden.
Scandalous using people on illness benifit as a way to force change.. how do these idiots implement a new system while not running the old one in parallel in the first place. I’m 6 weeks without any money coming in at all I have nothing and they don’t seem to inform anyone of the changes. The head of this department should be sacked .. do they know what it’s like to be bed ridden for several weeks and then have your mobile cut off… how are people meant to seek help then? Fire the lot of them who implemented this change and didn’t provide a suitable enough failover plan.
Plenty clients who submitted the new form has their payment delayed. The 10 code system seems beyond the DSP.
Citizens of the state are not customers. They are citizens interacting with a state service. We should worry about the volume of data state departments are now collecting, especially in light of the health minister wanting to give that data away: https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/health-regulations-will-allow-use-of-personal-data-without-consent-1.3605742
The public sector summed up
So the worker of Ireland is being punished for being sick what a joke
Translation: There’s a new form, chaos ensues.
I went on stress leave last week and was advised by my GP of the change, I’ve had no problem getting my benefit!!!. He has the new forms this week so no delay
It’s the Mudder and Fodder of all rows
Disgracefull delays ..but nothing new there .had to wait months and then go to appeals fr my sick child
GPs as bad as the worst public sector unions, in real world normal workers (aka private sector) just get on with the jobs, rather than manufacturer a dispute ovet a change in forms!
also why paper forms, this should all be done online
Seems like a good old inter union turf war between the IMO and NAGP.
GP’s are usually right. They see it on the front line. Harris and the department live on another planet.
have your say