Waste and Inefficienty at the VHI

Do you really want to have the nurses filling in more forms for the VHI to state what each patient eat at each meal? Seems sensible to me to charge a standard rate for bed & board regardless of what the patient ate.
 
On the whole computer thing in the VHI - I recently moved from one group scheme to another and was at one stage receiving four letters a day. When I contacted them and pointed this out I was told that a new computer system has been installed and no one knows whats going out !
 
my gripe with the vhi which i have aired here before is that when my eldest turned 21 i rang vhi and asked to have her on plan A but they said that a member of a family couldn't be on a different plan to anyone else in the house. I enquired as to why not and just got a blank 'we dont do it' answer. I then asked if it would be possible for her to have here 'own' policy, but deductions made from my wages as per the 'family' plan. No was the answer. So now shes in Bupa and Vhi has lost a 21 year old , probably for life.
on the equalisation question, and I know its a question of averages, but there are two oldies in our house and two teenies. both the teenies have been hospitalised this year, bupa got stung for around €1200 and vhi for €1300 ( 4 wisdom teeth/apendectomy) , so it does not always work out that younger customers cost less.
 
Guys/gals I know what you are saying, but come on, anything is better than depending on the public situation.!!!I spend 3k per year on myself and family for med insurance but we are treated very well and get seen within weeks of the complaint!!! come on ...we spend that on house improvements/clothes/meals out /etc.....but its a basic need ,,,like your esb.Only its more important for peace of mind!!!look at the big picture.
 
"Do you really want to have the nurses filling in more forms for the VHI to state what each patient eat at each meal? Seems sensible to me to charge a standard rate for bed & board regardless of what the patient ate."

If I may take the discussion on a slight tangent - we had a child hospitalised for five days in Fuerteventura a few years ago. It was standard practice in this hospital for the nursing staff to take detailed notes of what had been consumed by the patient at each meal. I remember it well, because I had been finishing off jnr's meal when a nurse explained that this would make it difficult for them to monitor the child's food intake. It strikes me that this is a good practice (the monitoring - not finsihing off jnr's grub), though for all I know it might have been restricted to the children's ward: does anybody know if Irish hospitals adopt the same practice?
 
Reply from Vhi Healthcare

It is a matter of record that Vhi Healthcare continues to be one of the most efficient Insurance companies in the world with an operating expense ratio of 8.6%, with the majority of insurance companies reporting expense ratios of 12% of premium income.

During 2004/2005 Vhi Healthcare paid out more than €752 million in claims benefit on behalf of its members – on average that’s almost €3 million per day. No other health insurer in Ireland comes near to providing this level of benefit to its members.

Vhi Healthcare has no shareholders, we exist solely to serve the needs of our 1.56 million customers and contact with our members has always been a top priority. Over the last twelve months we had more than 4.3 million contacts with our members through telephone, email, mail, text messages or personal callers to our offices in Dublin, Dun Laoghaire, Cork, Limerick, Galway and Kilkenny. Our own market research consistently shows that members value this level of contact.

Research also shows that some people particularly older people value face-to-face contact with our staff through the public offices.

Vhi Healthcare operates in a very competitive environment and we are constantly updating our product offering to reflect the changing healthcare needs of our members. We think it is important that we keep our members fully informed of any new offerings that may be of interest to them. Generally we would write to our members once a year at renewal date but on occasion where we have had an innovative and significant new product launch such as Lifestage Choices we would write and tell our members about it. In addition where changes take place in a policy either at renewal date or during the year it is our practice to fully inform our members of all our system actions Vhi Healthcare acknowledges that from time to time some individual members have had cause to complain about an aspect of our service such as multiple correspondences etc. Our policy is to seek to address any problem on an individual basis as quickly as possible and to the satisfaction of our customers.

 
Re: Reply from Vhi Healthcare


Does this number include all of the multiple correspondence as well, I wonder.
 
MOB said:
It was standard practice in this hospital for the nursing staff to take detailed notes of what had been consumed by the patient at each meal.
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Yes, but do you really want every nurse to be recording the food records for every meal for every patient on their computer for billing purposes - seems like an awful waste of time to me.
 
On the equalisation thing, I heard recently that almost every one of the Bupa staff in Fermoy sent a letter to a local PD representative and to the Min of Health.

It was that people pressure alone that forced the tanaiste to reverse her implementation of the equalisation.

I not dismissing the previous comments, but bupa are making a fortune and taking it back to the UK, they are fully commercial [PROFIT DRIVEN] in Ireland.
 
Im a BUPA customer and at the height of the risk equalisation debate a few months ago I got a letter from BUPA which was more of a "policital pamplet" than an "advertising flier". I considered it a breach of the data protection legislation (information gathered about me for health insurance purposes being used in a political debate). Is this an example of "waste and inefficency" at BUPA?
 
I was NHS in the UK......I was always looked after FOC Free of Charge, Gratis, Nada, Nil, Zero.
Here, 1300 odd to the VHI and a pocketful of 40€ bills!

Still, I'm not complaining, Al Quaeda ain't blowing up Dublin! (or erm....eh...Ballygobeblowed...thats where I live Mr. B. Laden sir......
 
quarterfloun said:
I was NHS in the UK......I was always looked after FOC Free of Charge, Gratis, Nada, Nil, Zero.
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Not quite free - presumably paid for by the higher taxes that UK workers and businesses pay?
 
Why do people always give out about a few quid in the difference between insurance companies when it's your own health you are talking about !! Surely this is more important that going to the pub on a saturday having a few pints or smoking your lungs out and getting your money's worth from either Vivas, vhi or bupa..... if we lived in germany or the US we would be spending a heap more on health insurance, and extra if u smoke, drink or if you do have alot of claims in the year like car insurance.......also Cuchulainn you were on about switching kids onto a cheaper policy, this can be done, the only reason that you may not be able to do it through the wages is that the company you work for will not facilitate this. i had the same prob witha a comp i used to "slave" for, when i left the old job the new company set up 2 pol's, one for myself and her indoors and another for junior...
 
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