"Health Repayment Scheme": Scheme Administrator KPMG is not very efficient.

P

pjq

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My Uncle died in 2003 having spent years an institution , we decided to reclaim the costs taken from his pension under the famous Mary Harney scheme.
We filled in the forms in Aug 2006 , since then "The Scheme Administrator" has;
1. returned the Grant of Admin.
2. one month later , we were informed that we must send them the Grant of Admin - within 2 weeks!! ( had they lost it ?? )
3. and now after 10 months , they noted that the Peace Comissioner had not entered his address on the form.
Maybe I'm just unlucky , but I have the feeling that "The (nameless) Scheme Administrator" is not a very efficient administrator . Are others having similar issues ?
PJQ
ps I searched "health repayment" and found nothing
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

Log onto www.repay.ie.

I have had similar problems with forms being sent back to me looking for additional information which had already been forwarded to them. I am also claiming back the costs that they took from my late father's pension plus my owns costs as I had to pay a monthly fee to the nursing home.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

An UPDATE

I just got the "Decision of Scheme Administrator" , there is an amount for 2002 and one for 2003 plus an inflation adjustment . However in the 6 page letter there is no explanation of how the amounts are calculated or more importantly , why is there no refund for the 8 years before 2002 when he was over 66 and thus pensionable .

The repayments for 2002 and 2003 are roughly 80% of the Non Cont. Pension , which would be as forseen in the Act.

NEXT STEPS
I think that I will call both the Administrator and Citizens Information to find answers . Anybody in a similar situation ? any suggestions?
PJQ
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

'why is there no refund for the 8 years before 2002 when he was over 66 and thus pensionable'.

See www.repay.ie

How to Make a Claim
1. Who should apply for repayment?
The scheme allows for the repayment of charges to the following people:

Living people who were wrongly charged at any time since 1976

The estates of people who were wrongly charged and died on or after 9 December 1998 (the cut off point for claims relating to deceased people)
People falling into the above categories should apply for repayment.

There will not be a refund for 8 years before your uncle died that would mean a refund from 1993 onwards. But you should check as to why there is no refund from 1998 to 2001
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

Another Update

I called Citizen Info. - they could not tell me if others having the same problem .

I called Scheme Admin. ( this is not part of our civil service , its outsourced to KPMG ) - they gave me another no. to call
I called 2nd no. - the no. was the Appeals Info line and the civil servant there told me , they have no access to the calculations , they have asked them (KPMG) not to direct queries on the detail to the Appeals section .
I wrote to KPMG - " let me have calculations within 14 days so that I can decide whether to appeal the calculations"
They phoned immediately - " to get the calculations you need to tick the appeals form and sign it" ( I asked for clarification ) this is a Less-Than-Straightforward way of saying go the appeals procedure we wont give you any explanation.

Conclusion , dealing with the Systems Administrator is less-than-straightforward. They have peed me off , mind you they have had a year in which to do it . We will appeal !
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

How about an email to ministers_office@health.irlgov.ie. Can't do any harm can it.Your post caused me to dig out my file for a claim made on behalf of my mother.I made the claim getting on for a year ago now and apart from a letter in Jan last asking for a piece of of info which I believe I included in the original claim-I have not heard a word since.
Time to start chasing this up I think.
 
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Re: Health Repayment Scheme

I have had all of the same problems, I wrote to them on behalf of my grandfather who had sent in his claim form(remember people that were still alive would be prioritised) over a year ago, I asked them for confirmation firstly they had recieved all the forms he had sent and secondly for some clarification of when they would start to make these refunds. After a huge amount of time wasted speaking to people who did'nt actually seem to know themselves what was going on, they then informed me they had lost ALL his forms, and would send him duplicates to complete yet again!! Did this and still have not even had a letter of confirmation from them, he has now taken to telephoning himself every day, sometimes twice, and even knows some of the call centre staff on first name terms! It has really given him something to get up for every morning, that is the only one good thing I can say about the whole system.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

pnh said:
How about an email to ministers_office@health.irlgov.ie. Can't do any harm can it.Your post caused me to dig out my file for a claim made on behalf of my mother.I made the claim getting on for a year ago now and apart from a letter in Jan last asking for a piece of of info which I believe I included in the original claim-I have not heard a word since.
Time to start chasing this up I think.
Click to expand...


I have been on to this office twice lately, once by phone where I was informed that my application had been processed through to calculation stage and that basically all was in order. That was about 6 weeks ago. I think the file is literally sitting in somebody's in-tray waiting to be approved. I emailed them the other day and got a reply stating that my application was being processed.

It seems to be taking an awful long time to process something that should be relatively straightforward. I will keep on top of this now. Maybe if enough applicants keep phoning or emailing it might make them speed up the process.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

See another new website set up for this scheme if you wish to appeal. Might need this when the scheme administrator finally gets around to making a decision on the application in the first place.

[broken link removed]
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme

Has anybody here received any payments yet from this scheme?
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

Another UPDATE
So I went ahead and filled out the "Appeal" form ,,, and a week later I got another form to fill out ( reasons for appealing) ., how very typically efficient!

I posted the reply to the Appeals Office ( part of Civil Service ) and in exactly 1 week , I had a copy of the calculation and an explanation as to why the claim only covered 2 out of 20 years spent in care AND the name of the person who supplied the info at the care institution , WOW!

Now I need to find out how the man spent 18 years in care without being in "long-stay care" and thus didn't incurring "long-stay charges" when he became pensionable . But Social Welfare might be able to help here .

pjq
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

I have just taken out a copy of my claim form and it is exactly a year to the day that I submitted the claim on behalf of my late father.

This is a ridiculous length of time to be waiting for this to be settled. I have not even received a notification from the Scheme Administrator giving me any idea of how much the claim will be.

Think as a previous poster has suggested an email to the minister's office might be in order.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

steph1 said:
I have just taken out a copy of my claim form and it is exactly a year to the day that I submitted the claim on behalf of my late father.

This is a ridiculous length of time to be waiting for this to be settled. I have not even received a notification from the Scheme Administrator giving me any idea of how much the claim will be.

Think as a previous poster has suggested an email to the minister's office might be in order.
Click to expand...
Just wonder if anyone has made progress with this.Had a response to a letter I wrote in August-basically telling me little I did not already assume.This sentence for instance:
"Unfortunately,due process in respect of gathering essential information neccessary to accurately and efficiently process claim applications is unavoidable".
Just how long does it take to gather essential info.?Months-certainly.Years?? They already have accurate info from me and just need to verify it.
Looking more and more like serious measures need to be taken..anyone have Joe Duffys number;)
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

pnh said:
Just wonder if anyone has made progress with this.Had a response to a letter I wrote in August-basically telling me little I did not already assume.This sentence for instance:
"Unfortunately,due process in respect of gathering essential information neccessary to accurately and efficiently process claim applications is unavoidable".
Just how long does it take to gather essential info.?Months-certainly.Years?? They already have accurate info from me and just need to verify it.
Looking more and more like serious measures need to be taken..anyone have Joe Duffys number;)
Click to expand...

I love that expression - 'due process'. To me it looks like they are saying we will get around to it eventually.

Any letters or emails that I have received from the scheme administrator look like normal run of the mill standard letters that issue when somebody writes in or sends an email - makes it look like the application is being dealt with.

I am seriously beginning to wonder if there is now a problem with this scheme and the repayment of monies owed to those of us who had no alternative but to have our loved ones cared for. Bearing in mind the current situation in the HSE and the cutbacks that are going on.

I have sent three emails to the contact email address for this scheme over the last two weeks and I have not received a reply to any of them.

As per the above quote and gathering essential information, I went to the trouble of contacting the hospital where my late father was and they forwarded me copies of receipts and I also had to get onto my bank who I have to say were most helpful in getting me copies of all the cheques that I had written.

Is anyone else on here following up applications at the moment?
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

Have any of the other posters on this thread any updates on their applications under this repay scheme?

I decided to send a further email last week as it is last September (07) since I've had anything in writing from this body and despite ringing in mid December and been told that my application was ok and has been forwarded on for processing thats all the communication I've had.

This is the reply that I received from the so called Scheme Adminstrator

'Thank you for your mail.


The claim is being assessed at present. The Deadline for the Scheme was

December 31st 2007. We are not accepting any new claims and are
concentrating on making payments on all existing claims. Unfortunately
there
is no definate timeframe that we can give you.

We will be in touch with further information as soon as possible.

Regards,

Scheme Administrator


Now I know well what the deadline for the scheme was which was one of the reasons why I made sure that my claim was forwarded as soon as I could process it. A cousin of mine has had her claim processed and paid out and she received this a few months ago and I was just curious as I had my own claim in a good few months ahead of hers.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

I posted the reply to the Appeals Office ( part of Civil Service ) and in exactly 1 week , I had a copy of the calculation and an explanation as to why the claim only covered 2 out of 20 years spent in care AND the name of the person who supplied the info at the care institution , WOW!
Click to expand...

So are you saying that the civil service adminstrators are more efficient than the KPMG private sector ones?
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

Does anyone remember the Ombudsman's report of 2003 or 2004 in which he (Michael Mills) stated that claims which were not processed within one year would be entitled to extra payment to compensate for "Lack of spending power".
Seems to me some of you may have a claim.

I have no involvement in either claiming or processing claims
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

csirl said:
So are you saying that the civil service adminstrators are more efficient than the KPMG private sector ones?
Click to expand...

Sssshhhh - Don't tell Purple. His head would explode.
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

OPs Update

I called the institution where my Uncle spent 18 yrs , they could see from the last few years records that he had not been charged for all the periods of care when he could have been charged , there were other periods when he lived in a community within the institution when his contributions don't fall within the scheme . They even offered to check older years . I decided not to put them to the trouble as I do believe them when they say that they did not always charge when they could have , what a chaos!
I informed them in Oct 07 , that I was in agreement with their calculation , got more papers to sign in March 08 ,,, finally got the payment within a month of signing .
pjq
 
Re: Health Repayment Scheme: Scheme Administrator is not very efficient.

Just to update on my case I finally got my cheque two days ago and to be fair thanks to a local TD who I asked to intervene on my behalf. Now I am not normally in the habit of running to a TD in cases like this but to be honest I was sick of the same old emails and same phone calls and going nowhere fast.

I had paid for my father's care from my own resources. Now in the application form there was a 'Section F' which was to be completed if you paid for any of the care in the nursing home from your own resources. And following a letter from the TD the HSE sent me a letter saying that if I would agree to withdraw Section F they could process the claim quicker. Cannot figure out for the life of me why this Section was on the form for if it was not to be filled in.

Anyway its all sorted out now and I was happy with the claim offered. Anyone else on this forum that has a claim keep in touch with the Scheme Administrator and if nothing is happening an email or a phone call to your local TD may help.
 
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