Backdating Medical Card

Gus Ivey

Hello all,

Last month I broke my leg and was only discharged last week. My hospital bill needs to be paid in a couple of weeks.

I got my medical card application together and will send it off today. I was hoping that the medical card could cover my hospital bill

I rang the hospital today and they said once the medical card is backdated, then it would cover the bill. They spoke like they were familiar with this sort of situation.

I rang the HSE and they said the never backdate medical card applications and so I would have to pay my hospital bill. Is this correct?

The problem is I have a broken leg, I only have enough income to survive and have no other way to pay my bill

Simonko

The person you were speaking to from the HSE is correct, medical cards are never backdated so you won't be covered for any medical expenses you've already incurred. I really don't know why the hospital would lead you to believe otherwise.

cathy neefoley

Our medical card was refused on the grounds that we were above the income threshold, on receiving a letter showing our income we found that they had added in one pension twice and some other mistakes. When we did the calculation ourselves we were well under the threshold, so we appealed within the 21 days. In the meantime we incurred prescription charges. We received our medical card back last week 5 weeks from the date the appeal went in. To date no explaination. Yet we are refused reinbursement of our costs when the fault clearly lies with the HSE where can we go from here

BigCOB

I am only relaying what happened to me here so this is not like it's how it works, but, I was in a similar position some years ago, went in and had a procedure, spent three days in hospital including going under for surgery. Anyway, I had no medical card and started receiving invoices from the hospital and after some time they became legal demands for payment. I applied for a medical card as I was in college and not working, received it, photocopied the most recent demand from the hospital and typed a letter apologizing for the delay in relaying the information, was recuperating blah blah blah, and I gave them my medical card number. Never heard from them again and I have been to hospital a couple times since. I reckon because I gave my medical card number and nothing else, they didn't know the issue date so just entered it.

In having said that, the official line is a medical card will cover medical needs from its issue date (and in some instances an emergency number can be issued before a physical card), and nothing before.

Grab All Association

cathy neefoley wrote: »

Our medical card was refused on the grounds that we were above the income threshold, on receiving a letter showing our income we found that they had added in one pension twice and some other mistakes. When we did the calculation ourselves we were well under the threshold, so we appealed within the 21 days. In the meantime we incurred prescription charges. We received our medical card back last week 5 weeks from the date the appeal went in. To date no explaination. Yet we are refused reinbursement of our costs when the fault clearly lies with the HSE where can we go from here

If its a lot (over €100) small claims court